IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2007-101.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Interest Rate Spreads in English-Speaking African Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Joe Crowley

Abstract

This paper examines interest rate spreads in English-speaking African countries. Higher spreads were found to be associated with lower inflation, a greater number of banks, and greater public ownership of banks. Higher deposit interest rates were found to be associated with lower interest rate spreads, but higher net interest margins. A large increase in spreads in the late 1980s and 1990s may be explained by a strengthening of financial sector supervision. Limited data suggested that poor governance, weak regulatory frameworks and property rights, and higher required reserve ratios are associated with higher spreads.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Joe Crowley, 2007. "Interest Rate Spreads in English-Speaking African Countries," IMF Working Papers 2007/101, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2007/101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=20629
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Demirguc, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 1999. "Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Margins and Profitability: Some International Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 379-408, May.
    2. Robert G. King & Ross Levine, 1993. "Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 717-737.
    3. Berger, Allen N, 1995. "The Relationship between Capital and Earnings in Banking," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(2), pages 432-456, May.
    4. Beck, T.H.L., 2000. "Impediments to the development and efficiency of financial intermediation in Brazil," Other publications TiSEM 4ff22952-305a-44ed-b4ee-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Berger, Allen N & Hannan, Timothy H, 1989. "The Price-Concentration Relationship in Banking," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(2), pages 291-299, May.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "Government Ownership of Banks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 265-301, February.
    7. Enrica Detragiache & Thierry Tressel & Poonam Gupta, 2008. "Foreign Banks in Poor Countries: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2123-2160, October.
    8. Ben S. Bernanke, 1990. "On the predictive power of interest rates and interest rate spreads," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Nov, pages 51-68.
    9. Ephraim W. Chirwa & Montfort Mlachila, 2004. "Financial Reforms and Interest Rate Spreads in the Commercial Banking System in Malawi," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 51(1), pages 1-5.
    10. Ho, Thomas S. Y. & Saunders, Anthony, 1981. "The Determinants of Bank Interest Margins: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 581-600, November.
    11. Thorsten Beck, 2007. "Bank Concentration and Fragility. Impact and Mechanics," NBER Chapters, in: The Risks of Financial Institutions, pages 196-231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Mr. Mohsin S. Khan & Mr. Abdelhak S Senhadji, 2000. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: An Overview," IMF Working Papers 2000/209, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Brock, Philip L. & Rojas Suarez, Liliana, 2000. "Understanding the behavior of bank spreads in Latin America," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 113-134, October.
    14. R. Gaston Gelos, 2009. "Banking Spreads In Latin America," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 796-814, October.
    15. Demirguc, Asli & Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2003. "The impact of bank regulations, concentration, and institutions on bank margins," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3030, The World Bank.
    16. Mr. Magnus Saxegaard, 2006. "Excess Liquidity and Effectiveness of Monetary Policy: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 2006/115, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Mrs. Ruby Randall, 1998. "Interest Rate Spreads in the Eastern Caribbean," IMF Working Papers 1998/059, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross, 2002. "Industry growth and capital allocation:*1: does having a market- or bank-based system matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 147-180, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sakouvogui Kekoura & Shaik Saleem & Addey Kwame Asiam, 2020. "Cluster-Adjusted DEA Efficiency in the presence of Heterogeneity: An Application to Banking Sector," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 50-69, January.
    2. David Tennant & Abiodun Folawewo, 2009. "Macroeconomic and market determinants of interest rate spreads in low- and middle-income countries," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 489-507.
    3. Florian Leon, 2015. "What do we know about the role of bank competition in Africa?," CERDI Working papers halshs-01164864, HAL.
    4. Hany A. Saleh & Abdelkader Derbali, 2020. "The Importance of Internal and External Factors in Defining the Profitability of UK Insurance Companies," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 10(4), pages 25-39.
    5. Akash Hossain & Raad Mozib Lalon, 2024. "An Empirical Investigation on the Determinants of Interest Rate Spread of Commercial Banks in Bangladesh," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(6), pages 97-103, October.
    6. Hong Liu & John Wilson, 2010. "The profitability of banks in Japan," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(24), pages 1851-1866.
    7. Kozo Kiyota & Barbara Peitsch & Robert M. Stern, 2007. "The Case for Financial Sector Liberalization in Ethiopia," Working Papers 567, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    8. Cecilia Maigua & Gekara Mouni, 2016. "Influence of Interest Rates Determinants on the Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 121-133, April.
    9. Murad Khan & Abdul Jalil, 2020. "Determinants of Interest Margin in Pakistan: A Panel Data Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, March.
    10. Hossain, Monzur, 2012. "Financial reforms and persistently high bank interest spreads in Bangladesh: Pitfalls in institutional development?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 395-408.
    11. Brunilda NELI, 2015. "Macroeconomic And Market Determinants Of Interest Rate Spread: Evidence From Albania," Scientific Bulletin - Economic Sciences, University of Pitesti, vol. 14(3), pages 51-59.
    12. Mr. Fazurin Jamaludin & Mr. Vladimir Klyuev & Anuk Serechetapongse, 2015. "What Drives Interest Rate Spreads in Pacific Island Countries? An Empirical Investigation," IMF Working Papers 2015/096, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Quoc Trung Nguyen Kim, 2022. "Does Financial Leverage Fit Firm Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Vietnam," International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM), IGI Global, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, January.
    14. Mujeri, Mustafa K & Younus, Sayera, 2009. "An Analysis of Interest Rate Spread in the Banking Sector in Bangladesh," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 32(4), pages 1-34, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lavezzolo, Sebastián, 2020. "Political regimes and bank interest margins," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(2).
    2. Ms. Laura Valderrama & Mr. Wendell A. Samuel, 2006. "The Monetary Policy Regime and Banking Spreads in Barbados," IMF Working Papers 2006/211, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Hossain, Monzur, 2012. "Financial reforms and persistently high bank interest spreads in Bangladesh: Pitfalls in institutional development?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 395-408.
    4. Mr. Ephraim W. Chirwa & Mr. Montfort Mlachila, 2002. "Financial Reforms and Interest Rate Spreads in the Commercial Banking System in Malawi," IMF Working Papers 2002/006, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Koffie Ben Nassar & Edder Martinez & Anabel Pineda, 2014. "Determinants of Banks' Net Interest Margins in Honduras," IMF Working Papers 2014/163, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Osuagwu, Eze, 2014. "Determinants of Bank Profitability in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 60948, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Philip Brock & Helmut Franken M., 2003. "Measuring the Determinants of Average and Marginal Bank Interest Rate Spreads in Chile, 1994-2001," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 6(3), pages 45-65, December.
    8. Nguyen, Thach V.H. & Nguyen, Thai Vu Hong, 2022. "How do banks price liquidity? The role of market power," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Mr. Calixte Ahokpossi, 2013. "Determinants of Bank Interest Margins in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 2013/034, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Valentina Flamini & Miss Liliana B Schumacher & Mr. Calvin A McDonald, 2009. "The Determinants of Commercial Bank Profitability in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 2009/015, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Florian Leon, 2015. "What do we know about the role of bank competition in Africa?," CERDI Working papers halshs-01164864, HAL.
    12. Saona, Paolo, 2016. "Intra- and extra-bank determinants of Latin American Banks' profitability," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 197-214.
    13. Robin, Iftekhar & Salim, Ruhul & Bloch, Harry, 2018. "Financial performance of commercial banks in the post-reform era: Further evidence from Bangladesh," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 43-54.
    14. Maria-Eleni K. Agoraki & Georgios P. Kouretas, 2019. "The determinants of net interest margin during transition," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1005-1029, November.
    15. Janbaz, Mehdi & Hassan, M. Kabir & Floreani, Josanco & Dreassi, Alberto & Jiménez, Alfredo, 2022. "Political risk in banks: A review and agenda," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Poghosyan, Tigran, 2010. "Re-examining the impact of foreign bank participation on interest margins in emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 390-403, December.
    17. Ben Naceur, Samy & Kandil, Magda, 2009. "The impact of capital requirements on banks' cost of intermediation and performance: The case of Egypt," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 70-89.
    18. Chortareas, Georgios E. & Garza-García, Jesús G. & Girardone, Claudia, 2012. "Competition, efficiency and interest rate margins in Latin American banking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 93-103.
    19. Mujeri, Mustafa K & Younus, Sayera, 2009. "An Analysis of Interest Rate Spread in the Banking Sector in Bangladesh," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 32(4), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Rahman, Mohammed Mizanur & Zheng, Changjun & Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & Rahman, Mohammad Morshedur, 2018. "Capital requirements, the cost of financial intermediation and bank risk-taking: Empirical evidence from Bangladesh," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 488-503.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2007/101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.