The Apex Bank of the Association of Rural Banks (ARB) has earned the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 27001; 2013 Certification.

Mr Kojo Mattah, Managing Director of ARB, said the Bank was awarded the coveted certification in February 2020, following a “rigorous” evaluation process, which was headed by KPMG, an international consultancy firm.

The Director disclosed these when he addressed the 19th Annual Managers’ conference of the Apex Bank in Ho, which was on the theme, “The Speed of Change.”

“This Certification means ARB Apex Bank has become one of the pacesetter banks to be certified in Ghana.

“The certification is a validation of our capacity to provide exceptional experience to our customers. It is a stamp of confidence in our people, systems and processes and a loud announcement to our partners and customers that the Bank and our member RCBs have come a long way and are poised to deliver superior service to customers,” Mr Mattah said.

The ISO remains one of the most recognised information security management standards, and its attainment adds to the data management credentials of the rural banking sector.

“RCB customers can be accused of the security of their data as it is managed according to the rigorous benchmark criteria that several multi-national organisations follow.

“RCBs can be assured of improved customer and business partner confidence as a result of the increased reliability and security of systems and information,” the Director said.

Mr Mattah said the rural banking sector managed to keep its head up throughout the coronavirus pandemic, recording significant growth in deposits.

He said the Bank’s commitment to leveraging on service innovation and technology, also helped rural and community banks (RCBs) survive a dreaded financial sector cleanup.

“We can say without hesitation that our quest to harness the power of innovation and digitisation for sustainable growth has yielded some tangible results. Today we can boast of a modern ICT backbone, which is helping us to develop innovative customer-centric products for the RCB customers,” the Director said.

He said the Bank had rolled out a mobile banking service, as part of its Agency Banking Service, and noted that a data centre upgrade scheduled for completion in November 2020 would enhance communication, and also facilitate the smooth operation of the online and mobile banking services.

Mr Mattah mentioned that four major cyber and information security and requirements under the Ghana Financial Sector Development Project have been given the green light, and that upon completion, would provide world-class data and network security for RCBs.

He acknowledged partnership with the Ghana Inter-bank Payment and Settlement Systems, which he said had “yielded good results”, including RCB customers’ access to services of GOIL and KFC branches nationwide.