1 April 2021, 1pm GMT
Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) in partnership with the Development and Economic Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) at ODI: A leading global affairs think tank, are hosting a 2-part webinar series based on DEGRP flagship publications. The first webinar of the series is entitled “Sub-Saharan Africa’s interbank markets: progress, barriers and policy implications.”
Chair:
Victor Murinde
AXA Chair in Global Finance
Director, Centre for Global Finance
SOAS University of London
Speakers:
Sherillyn Raga
Senior Research Officer
ODI’s International Economic Development Group
Judith Tyson
Research Fellow and Development Finance Specialist
ODI’s International Economic Development Group
Guest speakers:
Ingrid Hagen
Vice-President Strategic Projects
Frontclear Management B.V
Dr. Samuel Tiriongo
Director
KBA Centre for Research on Financial Markets and Policy (Kenya Bankers’ Association)
Background
Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A) in partnership with the Development and Economic Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) at ODI: A leading global affairs think tank, are hosting a 2-part webinar series based on DEGRP flagship publications. The first webinar of the series is entitled “Sub-Saharan Africa’s interbank markets: progress, barriers and policy implications.”
In the last decade, there has been a broad deepening of the banking sector, with a notable expansion of financial access and strengthening of regulation across sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this progress, the banking sector in the region continues to suffer from a lack of competition, high borrowing costs, low levels of credit and a concentration of bank lending in the extractive sector. Interbank markets have a role to play in enabling economic growth, but this will only happen if efforts are made to develop and deepen them across sub-Saharan Africa.
The authors present a landscape of interbank markets, provide analysis of recent evidence on the factors that hinder their development, and draw attention to the policy implications for financial regulators.
Key findings include:
High market segmentation (due to differential interbank pricing and access to funds)
High levels of perceived risk (due to information asymmetry and ‘price stickiness’)
Financial regulators face challenge to mitigate financial contagion risks and should create market discipline as well as foster interbank market participation and competition.
This webinar will highlight the key findings, analysis, and insights of the research.
