, the government, chief justice and security agencies to work steadily to recover certain assets from shareholders, directors and loan defaulters of the erstwhile defunct banks. currently, there are fifty - two ( 52 ) cases in the various courts in the country, 50 of which have been assigned to specific judges / courts. in addition, over sixty ( 60 ) cases have been referred to the special investigative team. 14. the task is enormous but we have confidence in our judicial system to bring those culpable to justice. the bank of ghana will continue to work with the receiver to ensure that bottlenecks in the receivership process cleared for the orderly winding down of the defunct banks. internal reforms 15. unfortunately, our predecessors in line with the governance challenges in the country at the time allowed the central bank operations intertwined with the political economy thereby committing considerable resources into non - core functions of the bank including building 5 - star guesthouses in takoradi and tamale as well as the bank hospital in cantonments. we have refocused the bank around its core central bank responsibilities, that is monetary policy and exchange rate management, price stability, financial stability, banking sector regulations, and supervision. a number of our staff are going through internal administrative process to establish culpability, if any, that contributed to the challenges resulting in the clean - up of the financial sector. once that process is completed, the public would be briefed of administrative actions that have been taken. in fact, yesterday one staff was dismissed for gross misconduct and conflict of interest involving the award of the sibton switch contract which was cancelled in august of 2017. the signal has been sent clearly to staff about the need to ensure discipline and professionalism in line with the new code of conduct that was launched in may this year. capacity building efforts 16. mr. chairman, we will continue with our regulatory reforms and efforts at strengthening the internal structures of the bank of ghana to prevent complicity of staff with third parties in the course of discharge of their supervisory duties. the strengthening of our regulatory and supervisory capacity will happen through improved systems, processes, accountability and training, all in a bid to better identify violations, detect early warning signals, enforce the law, and ensure that banks take prompt corrective actions to address emerging risks. our crisis management framework is also being strengthened to help us contain, manage, and resolve crises more promptly. we are bringing international best practices and standards to create a central bank that is fit for purpose

vehicles in which they retained contractual and reputational liquidity exposures. these vehicles, like banks themselves, were funding longer - term assets with short - term liabilities, and, like banks, they were subject to a run when their lenders became concerned about the quality of the assets. some banks wound up using their own liquidity to support financing vehicles that were no longer able to fund themselves on anything like the same terms and conditions as before the market turmoil began. and as banks made good on the implicit or explicit liquidity insurance they sold, they found themselves with larger balance sheets and less - robust capital cushions than they anticipated. as the banks'capital and liquidity cushions unexpectedly eroded, they became quite cautious about extending credit, a dramatic change from the more complacent attitudes of previous years. concentration risk is another familiar risk that is appearing in a new form. banks have always had to worry about lending too much to one borrower, one industry, or one geographic region. but as smaller banks hold more of their balance sheet in types of loans that are difficult to securitize, concentration risks can develop. concentrations of commercial real estate exposures are currently quite high at some smaller banks. this has the potential to make the banking sector much more sensitive to a downturn in the commercial real estate market. the private sector needs to respond to protect their capital and liquidity, banks and other financial market participants are addressing the weaknesses revealed by market developments by becoming much more careful about the risks they are taking. this is a necessary process, but it has been a difficult one as well ; it is reducing the values of some assets and tightening credit cost and availability across a wide range of instruments and counterparties, despite considerable easing in the stance of monetary policy. it is this tightening that is accentuating the downside risks for the economy as a whole. and in some sectors, as lenders seek protection against perceived downside risks, it is probably going further than is necessary to foster financial stability in the long run. but we will end up with a safer, more robust financial system. for banks, a safer and more robust financial system will be characterized by improved risk management that incorporates the lessons from the recent turmoil. successful risk management looks comprehensively across business lines and is fully integrated into the decisionmaking of senior management. it identifies stresses and scenarios that might seem remote, but that could threaten safety and soundness. banks'own self - interest clearly provides a strong incentive to