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Growing cross-border banking in Sub-Saharan Africa and the need for a regional centralized regulatory authority

Author

Listed:
  • Franklin N. Ngwu

    (Pan-Atlantic University)

  • Chris Ogbechie

    (Pan-Atlantic University)

  • Kalu Ojah

    (University of the Witwatersrand)

Abstract

Though cross-border banking, stimulated by globalization and financial integration in the recent past, is said to offer growth-enhancing benefits such as competition and efficiency, financial inclusion, and diversification of risk, these benefits seem not to have materialized markedly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an outcome attributable to efficiency barriers, currency differences, political instability, linguistic divisions, weak legal environment, and lack of regulatory coordination. However, given that many have flagged heterogeneity of regulatory architecture, inadequate institutional infrastructure, and other requisite environmental factors as more pivotal reasons for the delayed realization of cross-border banking’s many benefits in SSA, we invoke lessons from the Euro area’s successful experience in cross-border banking, to propose effective ways of harvesting its benefits in SSA. This paper, therefore, advances the initiation of a centralized regulatory authority as a potentially efficacious way of extracting fuller harvests from cross-border banking in SSA. More specifically, lessons from the Euro area suggest that strong collaboration among supervisors across SSA should be encouraged as to foster the establishment of a centralized regulatory authority for enabling successful cross-border banking and other financial services. Furthermore, the following regional initiatives can serve as robust antecedents of the centralized regulatory authority: single or more integrated regional markets, a regional deposit insurance scheme, and 1–2 dominant convertible currencies that can minimize exchange rate risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Franklin N. Ngwu & Chris Ogbechie & Kalu Ojah, 2019. "Growing cross-border banking in Sub-Saharan Africa and the need for a regional centralized regulatory authority," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 274-285, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:jbkreg:v:20:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1057_s41261-018-0090-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41261-018-0090-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Maureen Were & Maureen Odongo, 2019. "Competitiveness and diversification of service exports in sub-Saharan Africa: The case of the East African Community," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-89, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Мерием Чафик & Мохамед Набил Ел Мабруки, 2022. "Възможности И Предизвикателства Пред Трансграничното Банкиране С Оглед На Пан-Африканските Банки," Economic Archive, D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics, Svishtov, Bulgaria, issue 4 Year 20, pages 3-19.
    3. Meriem Chafik & Mohammed Nabil El Mabrouki, 2022. "Opportunities And Challenges Of Cross-Border Banking: Focus On Pan-African Banks," Economic Archive, D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics, Svishtov, Bulgaria, issue 4 Year 20, pages 1-14.

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