The Bank of Ghana, established in 1957, is the central bank. Commercial banking services are rendered mainly by the Commercial Bank of Ghana (worth approximately $30 million in 1999); and SSB Bank Limited (worth about $80 million in 1999). Two British banks, Barclays Bank of Ghana Ltd. and the Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana Africa Ltd. (both 40% state-owned), together had 67 branches in 1993. Other commercial banks include The Trust Bank Limited, The Agricultural Development Bank, Agricultural Bank Limited, Bank for Housing and Construction Limited, National Investment Bank Limited, Cooperative Bank Limited, Prudential Bank Limited, and International Commercial Bank Limited.
Merchant banks include the Merchant Bank of Ghana Limited, Ecobank Ghana Limited, CAL Merchant Bank Limited, First Atlantic Merchant Bank Limited, and Metropolitan and Allied Bank Limited.
The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2000, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $478.0 million. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $975.6 million. The discount rate, the interest rate at which the central bank lends to financial institutions in the short term, was 27%.
A stock exchange was opened in Accra in 1987. By 1994, the tiny exchange was up nearly 300%. International mutual fund managers and other foreign investors have shown increasing interest in Ghana, and in 1998, the Ghana stock exchange was judged the best performing bourse in emerging markets.