PThe Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Databank, Kojo Addae-Mensah has advised the public to conduct a thorough due diligence on financial companies they invest in order to save them from losing their investments.
He also urged the public to desist from taking their investment decisions based on hearsay and be wary of investment schemes which promised high returns or interest rates above the industry standards.
Mr Addae-Mensah who was speaking at the weekend during a forum with customers of Databank and the general public, said conducting due diligence on companies would help the public to ascertain whether the companies were financially viable.
Dubbed Time with the CEO, the programme was to provide opportunity for customers of Databank and the general public to ask questions about the investment operations of the company and how to invest their monies.
Mr Addae-Mensah, who spoke on the topic, ‘Banking reforms and its impact on the investment industry and the outlook of Ghana’s stock market for 2019’, urged the public to enquire about the people behind the companies they invest in and the investment schemes their monies were invested in.
To this end, he entreated the public to often visit the regulators of the banking, financial and investments institutions to ensure that the companies they invested in went by the rules and regulations of the industry.
He said individuals who had lost their investments through the collapse of some financial and investment institutions, could have averted that if they had done a little bit due diligence on those companies.
Mr Addae-Mensah expressed concern about the manner in which some individuals took their investment decisions based on hearsay from their colleagues and friends.
He intimated that the challenges Menzgold was going through had some impact on Databank since some customers of the company embarked on panic withdrawals.
Elucidating on the recent banking crisis, the CEO said the problem was due to poor corporate governance and failure of the players in the banking industry to go by the rules and regulations of the industry.
Turning his focus on Databank, he said the investment of clients were safe since the management of the company took its investment decisions based on research by experts from the Research Department of the company, to ascertain which companies were financially viable and profitable to invest in.
He said the company established in 1990 with a handful of employees, currently has about 200 staff and managed millions of investments for individuals and institutions and currently offered more than ten products and services, such as ArkFund, Bfund, EdIFund, Epack, Mfund Databank Church Growth Account and Databank student investment account.
The CEO entreated customers who have short term financial needs to invest in MFund, and those who have long term financial goals and strong appetite for risk could invest in Epack.
Mr Addae-Mensah pledged that the company would continue to deepen communication and engagement with clients, and said management of Databank would continue to deploy and leverage technology to reach clients.
By Kingsley Asare
