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01.08.2017 Business & Finance

HFC Bank to be rebranded Republic Bank

By Shiela Tamakloe | JoyBusiness
HFC Bank to be rebranded Republic Bank
01.08.2017 LISTEN

HFC bank says it will be rebranding to Republic bank. After almost three years of taking over majority shares of HFC bank, Republic Bank are now set to rebrand the bank.

The change is however subject to approval by all shareholders of the HFC at their AGM later this year.

Speaking to JoyBusiness after a media briefing on the development, Managing Director of the bank, Robert Le hunte, said “we recognize the great name of HFC and it’s known as a Ghanaian bank. However a lot of people associate HFC with mortgage and housing.”

He said “We think and it’s our objective to build on the past but moving on there are a number of areas that we intend to focus on that is oil and gas financing, in addition to mortgaging, salary loans, in addition to corporate loans and we think therefore that broadening the change of name will give a broad coverage of the services we produce.”

Mr Le hunte further explains, the change in name will make the bank stand firmer. He added “Republic bank is a BBB+ organization by Standard and Poor which actually places it as one of the strongest institutions here.”

He said, “…as such we think a closer association with such a strong institution with US $1.5 billion in equity and over US$11 billion in size will be to our benefit.”

Meanwhile HFC bank has recorded one of its best half-year financial performance in the history of its 27 years of operations.

The bank’s profit after tax went up by some 52 percent to 26.5 million Ghana cedis. This comes after two years of losses and a GH¢150 million in provision.

Additionally the bank now boasts of having one of the highest cover ratio i.e provision to non-performing loans of over 65% which provides the bank with protection against future shocks moving forward.

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