BoG Extends Deadline For Minimum Capital Requirement

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Dr Ernest Addison

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced the extension of the
deadline for commercial banks to meet their Minimum Capital Requirement.

The banks were expected to meet the minimum capital requirement of GHC400 million by June 30, 2020.

The Central Bank has however extended the time to December 31, 2020.

The Bank made the announcement in a statement issued on March 30, 2020.

It says the extension also applies to
specialised deposit-taking institutions and all existing Payment Service Providers and Electronic Money Issuers in Ghana.

It announced that the deadline for meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and ISO 27001 certification requirements has also been extended from June 2020 to December 2020.

The extension, African Entertainment is informed, applies to all existing Electronic Money Issuers and Payment Service Providers that fall under the licence category required to meet the above certification.

According to the Bank of Ghana, all existing financial technology firms that intend to integrate with GhIPSS are required to meet GhIPSS’ minimum security and control requirements by December 31, 2020.

The statement further indicated that the deadline for meeting the minimum infrastructure and governance requirements is extended from June 2020 to December 2020.”

It would be recalled that to operationalize the Payment Systems and Services Act, 2019 (Act 987), the Central Bank on September 12, 2019 issued a notice (NOTICE NO BG/GOV/SEC/2019/16) on the minimum capital requirements, permissible activities, fees, governance and systems requirements for Payment Service Providers and Electronic Money Issuers but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BoG has had to adjust the deadlines for meeting these requirements.

By Melvin Tarlue