Report Launched: 20 Most Credible Banks in Ghana A new ranking of Ghanaian banks based on an assessment of their credibility has just been launched. The assessment draws on an index of the banks compiled using Credmap technology (www.credmap.com), a novel “credibility-rating” engine that is capable of combining crowd- rating and data mining to generate “credibility scores” of individuals and institutions using pooled data about their track record, history, commentary, biography, popular sentiment and reputation. Credmap’s algorithms mash the data together to distill the complex information into compact rankings, scores and benchmarks. All 30 of Ghana’s tier one/universal banks were subsequently benchmarked against Credmap’s measures, compared to each other, and then ranked in what became the Ghana Banking Credibility Index (GBCI), a process that was overseen by a team of senior technical analysts at Konfidants, a management consulting company based in Accra, Johannesburg and Geneva. In this inaugural index, the primary focus was on the quality of bank boards and senior management personnel. The Konfidants team was of the view that in the wake of recent developments in the banking sector, corporate governance and management competence have emerged as, by far, the most critical factors in determining bank performance and success. Some major criteria in the computation of the GBCI therefore included: A. Executive track record of the board & management membership B. Educational qualifications of board members and senior management personnel C. The emphasis on continuous professional development within the studied banks. D. Reputational factors E. Degree of board independence from shareholder and management control and influence (this factor was analysed using a proprietary “relationship graph” and “insider connections” rating logic). F. Consistency and accuracy in board and management communications as ascertained from comments in the media, advertising, and publications, including official documentation and reports. The automation of the data scanning, weighting, and visualisation activities using Credmap algorithms marks a major departure from the traditional methods of index design for rankings of this nature. The Analysts were able to more rapidly doublecheck how traditional benchmarks such as “net interest margin”, “capital adequacy”, “asset quality”, “return on equity” and “return on assets” ratios conceal or reveal the most salient factors in bank governance and reputation, which in a period of tighter regulation and consumer apprehension become dominant weighting factors for all the traditional CAMEL rating indices of institutional health in the financial industry. With this novel implementation of Credmap in such a critical context, the door is now open for a more rigorous, scientific, and objective regime for appraising the credibility of public figures, influential individuals and institutions, as well as other high profile commentators. Credmap’s crowd-rating engine continues to grow in features and capabilities. In coming weeks and months the platform should enable deep and extensive assessment of the records and reputations of many influential people and organisations, whose deeds and words impact significantly on society. Michael Kottoh, Managing Partner of Konfidants, expressed the view that “because the recent banking crisis was fundamentally a failure of leadership – as opposed to the failure stemming from systemic risk in the wider economy -- it’s crucial to throw more light on quality of leadership in the sector; as the country’s financial sector evolves and matures, the credibility of banks will increasingly depend on the credibility of their boards and management”. He mentioned weak risk management cultures as adequately measurable when personnel competence and track record, and board autonomy and capacity, are used as predictors. Commenting further, he said, “The analysis also revealed that not enough emphasis is being placed on Continuous Professional Education (CPE) for bank directors; this matters a lot for improving director competence and capacity to supervise management. We think the Bank of Ghana should impose mandatory CPE requirements and more aggressive CPE scores as part of the process of enforcing the broader ‘fit and proper’ rules directive”. Kofi Yeboah, the Coordinator of the Credmap Ghana deployment said, “in the months ahead, Credmap will continuously work with its global partners to roll out Credmap’s multi-country financial sector analytics in other African markets and beyond.” To speak to one of our data experts about the methodology used in the rankings and to join our consultation – and to ensure that your company or industry stays abreast with the impact of Credmap’s and Konfidant’s market and society scanning activity – email [email protected]. About Credmap CredMap is a civic movement dedicated to the use and promotion of various technologies to encourage truth-telling, fact-checking, and integrity, to influence the public to put a premium on the credibility of public figures and institutions. One key technology used in generating the ‘credibility score’ is CredGraph. CredGraph is the centrepiece technology backing the CredMap platform. CredGraph is composed of modules for CredScoring, CredRanking, and Source Page layout and analytics. The core algorithm has proprietary features of web crawling, social media feed scanning, digital mentions logging, sentiment analysis, ‘fact nugget mining’, accuracy labelling and feedback clustering. About Konfidants Konfidants is an international management consulting firm advising multinationals, Africa- focused corporations, governments and international financial institutions to achieve impact across the Africa region and beyond. In recent years, Scholars and analysts at Konfidants have been at the forefront of pioneering various innovative benchmarking tools being used by regional and global investors on the African continent -- including the “African Globalizers Index” and the “African Sovereign Wealth Funds Index”. Appendix Final Ranking Table – 2018 Most Credible Banks Short Name Full Name Rank Stanchart Standard Chartered Bank 1 Zenith Zenith Bank (Ghana) Limited 2 Ecobank Ecobank Ghana Limited 3 UBA United Bank for Africa (Ghana) Ltd 4 Barclays Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. 5 Societe General Societe General (Ghana) Limited 6 Stanbic Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd 7 Fidelity Fidelity Bank Limited 8 Access Access Bank (Ghana) Limited 9 GCB GCB Bank Limited 10 CALBank CAL Bank Limited 11 UMB Universal Merchant Bank Limited 12 Bank of Africa Bank of Africa Ghana Ltd 13 Bank of Baroda Bank of Baroda (Ghana) Limited 14 FBN FBNBank (Ghana) Ltd 15 Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) GT Bank Limited 16 FNB First National Bank (Ghana) Ltd 17 First Atlantic First Atlantic Bank Ltd 18 GHL GHL Bank 19 Republic Republic Bank (Ghana) Ltd 20 .