- Banking League Reshuffles as GCB Leads Deposits and OmniBSIC Makes Rapid Gains
Ghana’s banking hierarchy is undergoing a significant reshuffle, with GCB Bank overtaking Ecobank Ghana as the industry’s largest deposit holder while OmniBSIC Bank has emerged as one of the fastest-growing challengers, breaking into the top five after ranking 13th only a year earlier.
The latest PwC Ghana Banking Survey shows GCB accounted for 12.37% of industry deposits in 2025, compared with 12.99% in 2024. Although GCB’s own share declined slightly, it moved into first position because Ecobank Ghana’s market share fell more sharply from 14.33% to 10.52%, while Stanbic Bank retained third place with 7.80%.
The three institutions together controlled about 30.69% of industry deposits, underlining the continued concentration of funding among a relatively small number of banks. The change at the top nevertheless points to a more fluid competitive environment in which deposit mobilisation is becoming increasingly important as interest rates ease and banks prepare for a different earnings cycle.
Deposits remain one of the cheapest and most stable sources of bank funding, giving institutions with strong retail, corporate and SME franchises greater flexibility to lend competitively while protecting margins. That makes GCB’s position particularly important because its leadership extends beyond deposits into lending and total operating assets.
GCB increased its share of industry loans from 15.40% in 2024 to 17.80% in 2025, reinforcing its position as Ghana’s largest lender. Ecobank remained second with 14.20%, leaving the two banks with a combined 32.00% share of the industry loan book, up from 29.70% a year earlier.
The increase came alongside a wider recovery in credit creation, with industry loans and advances rising 23.40% from GH¢85.1 billion in 2024 to GH¢105.1 billion in 2025. The expansion reflects improving economic conditions, declining lending rates and stronger demand for financing from businesses and households, suggesting banks are beginning to move beyond the defensive balance-sheet strategies that dominated the recent high-interest-rate period.
Periods of elevated Treasury yields have historically encouraged banks to allocate substantial liquidity to government securities because of their attractive returns and relatively low credit risk.
As those yields decline, however, institutions may have to search more aggressively for quality private-sector borrowers, intensifying competition for SMEs, established corporates and retail customers capable of supporting profitable loan growth.
The biggest disruption in the deposit rankings came from OmniBSIC Bank, which moved from 13th position in 2024 to fifth in 2025 with a 6.00% market share.
PwC attributed the improvement to focused customer acquisition and stronger growth in retail and SME deposits, demonstrating how rapidly competitive positions can change when a bank succeeds in attracting new funding.
Such a rise is notable because deposit relationships can be difficult to dislodge, particularly among companies, institutions and long-standing retail customers. Significant market-share gains can therefore signal more aggressive pricing, stronger digital channels, wider distribution, improved service or successful targeting of customer segments that may previously have been underserved.
Zenith Bank also strengthened its position, increasing its deposit share from 5.90% to 6.30%, while First Atlantic Bank improved to 4.90%. These movements reinforce the view that Ghana’s deposit market is becoming more contested even as the largest institutions retain considerable scale advantages.
The reshuffling is also visible in operating assets. Total industry operating assets increased from GH¢308.4 billion in 2024 to GH¢404.3 billion in 2025, an expansion of almost GH¢96 billion, with GCB retaining the largest share at 12.30%, followed by Ecobank at 10.80% and Stanbic at 8.60%.
Absa accounted for 7.20% of operating assets, while Fidelity Bank and Zenith Bank each held 6.10%. OmniBSIC again stood out, with its share rising from 2.80% to 5.10%, while Zenith’s share increased from 5.70% to 6.10%.
The composition of the expanded balance sheet is equally revealing. Liquid assets rose 57.70% to GH¢169.7 billion, Treasury bill holdings approximately doubled to GH¢102.1 billion, while net loans and advances increased 24.90% to GH¢92.1 billion.
That suggests banks remain highly liquid and continue to hold substantial exposure to government securities even as private-sector lending begins to accelerate. The strategy offers protection against credit risk and preserves liquidity, but it could become harder to sustain if Treasury yields continue to fall and banks need higher-yielding assets to defend profitability.
For GCB, leadership in deposits, loans and operating assets gives the bank considerable scale heading into that transition. Its deposit franchise and broad customer network could provide greater flexibility to expand lending without relying heavily on more expensive wholesale funding.
Ecobank remains one of Ghana’s most systemically important banks despite losing the deposit crown. Its second-place positions in loans and operating assets show that the institution continues to command significant balance-sheet strength even after the fall in deposit market share.
OmniBSIC represents the more disruptive story because its rise from 13th to fifth in deposits and sharp increase in operating assets demonstrate how quickly competitive positions can shift. The longer-term test will be whether that stronger deposit base can be converted into profitable lending and sustainable earnings without weakening asset quality.
That challenge now confronts the entire industry. As Ghana moves further into a lower-interest-rate environment, the competitive battleground is likely to shift increasingly towards customer acquisition, digital banking, transaction services, SME financing and carefully priced private-sector credit.
GCB has taken the deposit crown from Ecobank, while OmniBSIC’s rapid rise shows that Ghana’s banking hierarchy is no longer static.
The next phase will be determined not simply by which banks accumulate the largest balance sheets, but by which institutions can convert deposits and liquidity into sustainable lending growth without sacrificing profitability or credit quality.
