The 29 th edition of the Forum of Banks and Credit Institutions Club of Africa opened on Thursday 8 February in Dakar (Senegal) in the presence of a hundred representatives of the profession.
Under the theme of “the bank of tomorrow, its regulatory context, the major issues of innovation and digitalization”, the meeting was the site of a technical and strategic debate between leading economists, invited to present a helicopter vision of the sector and the practitioners, “topographers” of an activity confronted with technological, financial and regulatory stakes.
The debate, first posed by the economist Dhafer Saidane, focused on the role of foreign banks (defined as institutions under national law or not but whose parent company is abroad), which represent 60% of Bank assets in the region Should we limit this excessive influence of international players, which certainly carry added value, but also, as Mr Saidane has so clearly pointed out, potential amplifiers of systemic risks?
Should vigorous competition be encouraged between locals and foreigners or, on the contrary, insist on the cautious restriction advocated by a safe vision of regulation?
Meanwhile, there are different trends that describe a changing environment. The current restructuring of the banking sector of WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) suggests a significant reduction in the size of French and European banks in general compared to pan-African. The share of EU banks is 14,8% as a result of the rise in strength of Moroccan and pan-African banks.
This renewal did not reduce the risk of concentration. Thus, “thirteen groups hold 80% of WAEMU’s banking assets,” notes Professor Babacar Sène, another economist, who draws attention to the excessive concentration of loans and government bonds.
Currently, some 27% of government securities (up to 40% in some countries) are held by banks, leading to a crowding out effect to the detriment of SMEs and businesses in general.
Addressing systemic risk in general, Professor Sène questions the regulatory arsenal put in place by the Central Bank. The introduction of consolidated control rules, control tests and the monitoring of 28 systematic cross-border banking groups are all measures taken by the regulator to contain these systemic risks.
No systemic risks
In order to cope with such risk categories, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has set up, in addition to the upstream management, a financial stability fund and a fund. deposit guarantee. All salutary provisions that do not provide any answer to the capacity of the regulator to reduce a large systematic risk. With 4 months of imports, the BCEAO has limited room for maneuver.
The meeting of African bankers that ends on February 9 is the perfect place to deal with the big issues of the day. De Bocar Sy, President of the BHS and the APBEF, who considers essential the control of the couple innovation and risks in its various components, while passing by Patrick Mestrallet, president of the Club, who returned on the main missions of this association to a non-profit organization founded in 1989, the Dakar meeting is a laboratory of ideas between practitioners, theoreticians and representatives of the State. Provided that the regulator is inspired by the many points of view and remarks raised during these rich exchanges made possible by the involvement of Thierno Seydou Nour Sy, Vice President of the Association of Banks of Senegal, also Vice-President of the Club des banks and credit institutions in Africa and director general of the National Bank for Economic Development (BNDE)
