In 1989, there was a total of eleven banks in Ghana, made up of eight local banks and three foreign banks. The foreign banks were the long established Barclays and the Standard Chartered Banks, and a third, the Bank of Credit and Commerce. The local banks were the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), the Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC), Co-operative Bank (Co-op), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Merchant Bank, Ghana (MBG), National Investment Bank (NIB), National Savings and Credit Bank (NSCB) and Social Security Bank (SSB). By 1997, the number of banks had grown to sixteen, with the local banks increasing to eleven and the foreign banks to five. New local entrants into the industry within the nine year period of between 1989 and 1997 were the First Atlantic Merchant Bank (FAMB), Prudential Bank Limited (PBL), and The Trust Bank (TTB) which entered in 1996. The foreign banks that were established between 1989 and 1997 were the Ecobank opened in 1990, International Commercial Bank (ICB) and BPI all in 1996. Meridien BIAO, a foreign bank which was opened in 1992 was closed three years later in 1994. Among the local banks, the National Savings and Credit Bank (NSCB) was acquired by the Social Security Bank (another local bank) within the period and this was in 1992. .
By 2006, the total number of banks had grown to twenty-one, consisting of eleven local banks and ten foreign banks. This means that for ten years there was no growth in the number of local banks in Ghana. However, this does not mean there were no new local banks between 1997 and 2006. The reason is that three banks were opened at the same time that three others were closed. The additions to the industry are the Amalgamated Bank (Amal Bank), HFC Bank and Unibank. The names of the closed banks are the Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC), the Co-operative Bank (Co-op Bank) and SSB Limited formerly the Social Security Bank which by virtue of it being acquired by Societe Generale, a French company lost its local status.
