BoG warns against return to FATF grey list as financial crime risks rise

Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Matilda Asante Asiedu, has warned that Ghana must strengthen its fight against financial crime to avoid being placed back on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. She made the call at the opening of the 2026 Technical Committee Workshop of the Committee for Cooperation Between Law Enforcement Agencies and the Banking Community (COCLAB). According to her, the outcome of Ghana’s latest mutual evaluation carries significant implications for the country, making it critical for institutions responsible for combating financial crime to deepen collaboration and strengthen enforcement efforts.

“The outcome of this assessment carries real weight,” she said, adding that the financial cost of being grey-listed could be significant. “So we definitely don’t want to go back there to being grey-listed,” Mrs Asante Asiedu stressed. The Second Deputy Governor said recent collaborative efforts under COCLAB had resulted in a number of successful interventions, including the arrest of 430 people, among them three foreign nationals, in an intelligence-led operation against illegal online operators in parts of Accra.

The operation, carried out in 2023, was among several coordinated efforts aimed at disrupting financial crimes and illegal activities within the financial ecosystem. She said collaboration among member institutions had also helped to disrupt fraud syndicates, recover illicitly transferred funds and support successful investigations and prosecutions. Mrs Asante Asiedu further cited the conviction of a bank employee who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for embezzling GH¢1.2 million, following improved information sharing among relevant institutions.

The warning comes at a time when financial crime is increasingly shifting towards digital platforms. According to the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 fraud report, fraud incidents across the financial ecosystem increased from 16,733 in 2024 to 24,778 in 2025, representing a 48% increase. While fraud incidents within the traditional banking system declined, cases involving digital transactions continued to rise, with fraud incidents in the digital space increasing by 98% between 2022 and 2025.

Mrs Asante Asiedu said the changing nature of financial crime requires a more strategic and proactive approach, as criminals continue to exploit the growing use of digital financi… The Bank of Ghana says fraud incidents in the digital space increased by 98% between 2022 and 2025, as financial criminals increasingly exploit the rapid growth in digital transactions. According to Central Bank, the sharp increase reflects a changing financial crime landscape, with fraudsters increasingly targeting digital platforms as more Ghanaians rely on electronic channels to make payments and transfer funds.

The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Matilda Asante Asiedu, says the development requires a significant shift in the way financial crime is tackled. “It is not just a shift in the statistics or the data, but it’s also a shift in the financial crime landscape itself. And that means that as entities that are responsible for combating that, we also have to have a shift in our strategy and in our mindset,” she said.