Ghana: Non-Bank Financial Institutions Business (Bog) Rules, 2000

This document articulates the business rules for non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) as laid down by the Bank of Ghana (BoG). It provides a brief background of the law which designates and entrusts BoG as the sole authority to look into all aspects of NBFI management. Besides providing guidelines for the NBFI sector as a whole, the document also lists outs the broad categories of institutions to which these NBFI rules apply.

The BoG rules pertaining to NBFIs, in particular:

• Detail the interpretation of the rules and provide the glossary of technical terms used;
• Outline the types of licenses that BoG issues and the kinds of businesses the licensed NBFIs are barred from engaging themselves in;
• Stipulate the minimum paid-up capital an NBFI has to maintain and the restrictions that are likely to be imposed on failing to maintain minimum capital and solvency standards;
• Mandate the liquidity requirements the deposit taking institutions are to maintain and the kind of penalty that are likely to be invoked in case of violation of maintaining the specified liquidity reserves;
• Articulate the restrictions that NBFIs have in making investments and internal and external lending;
• Lay down the portfolio management norms relating to business finance, micro and small business loans and asset-based finance;
• Outline the corporate governance procedures which the NBFIs are to abide by and the likely sanctions that can be made for non-adherence to the specifications of the rules.