Trust is the new currency – Fidelity Bank’s Atta Gyan challenges corporate leaders to anchor governance in ethics

In an address delivered at the 3rd Ghana Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) National Fraud Conference, Fidelity Bank Ghana has challenged corporate Ghana to radically redefine its approach to governance.

Atta Yeboah Gyan, Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Support Functions, argued that in an era where public confidence is increasingly fragile, “trust has become the new currency of leadership,” and the fight against fraud must move beyond mere compliance checklists to a culture of lived integrity.

Delivering the keynote address at the Accra International Conference Centre under the theme ‘The Role of Corporate Executives in Promoting Ethical Leadership and Accountability in Ghana’, Mr. Gyan positioned ethical leadership not merely as a moral obligation, but as a critical economic survival strategy for Ghanaian institutions.

The “Tone at the Top” mandate

Mr. Gyan’s address diagnosed a critical vulnerability in the corporate landscape: the gap between written policy and actual behavior. He argued that while Ghana has seen commendable advances in digitization and regulatory frameworks, these tools remain insufficient without the “human element” of steadfast leadership.

“Corporate executives are the custodians of ethical culture within their organisations,” Mr. Gyan stated. “We set the ‘tone at the top,’ and that tone determines whether integrity becomes a lived value or a mere slogan. When leaders compromise ethics for short-term gain, they send a signal that values are negotiable. And once values become negotiable, integrity becomes optional and that is when fraud thrives.”

He emphasized that a leader’s greatest contribution to the fight against fraud is “not the policies we write, but the examples we set,” urging executives to make decisions based on principle rather than convenience.

The business case for integrity

Moving beyond the moral argument, Mr. Gyan outlined the stark economic reality of ethical failure. He noted that fraud and corruption do more than just drain resources; they distort fair competition and weaken the institutional fabric necessary for attracting investment.

“The question, therefore, is not whether ethical leadership is expensive, but whether we can afford the cost of its absence,” he remarked. “When leaders compromise principles, organisations lose credibility, employees lose motivation, investors lose confidence, and customers lose trust. Rebuilding that trust can take years, sometimes decades.”

Conversely, he highlighted that ethical practices act as a strategic differentiator, enhancing brand loyalty among socially conscious consumers and positioning institutions to navigate complex regulatory landscapes with agility.

A call for institutional transformation

Fidelity Bank used the platform to advocate for a systemic shift in how Ghanaian organizations manage ethics. Mr. Gyan called for the institutionalization of ethics; building governance structures that make “wrongdoing difficult and transparency natural.” He championed the protection of whistleblowers and the active rewarding of integrity, rather than just the punishment of vice.

“Technology and regulation alone cannot win the fight against unethical conduct,” Mr. Gyan concluded, reflecting on the bank’s own journey of strengthening internal controls and culture. “That victory belongs to people; leaders who choose integrity over convenience every single day.”

Mr. Gyan left the gathering of fraud examiners, regulators, and business leaders with a challenge: to leave a legacy not of excuses, but of ethics, building a Ghana where “doing the right thing is not the exception, but the expectation.”

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