Microfinanzas BBVA Foundation

Regulation is undergoing changes in many of the continent’s countries. In general, the trend is to increase the supervisory role of monetary authorities, including a greater number of banks within their competence.

Some countries have approved the adaptation of the regulatory framework by establishing new types of supervised banks, with lower capital requirements than those for banks. The previously mentioned examples of NBFIs in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania would fall within this category.

In certain countries, the cooperative sector is likewise starting to come under the control of the competent monetary authorities. In CEMAC, all banks attracting savings, be they cooperative institutions or not, are supervised by the COBAC, the central bank common to the countries in the region. On the other hand, the BCEAO has passed its programme for the coming years, the PRAFIDE, which contemplates taking within its competencies supervision of the main cooperative institutions and NBFIs. In Tanzania, South Africa and Madagascar, banks with deposits in excess of a certain amount are likewise supervised, those not reaching the said amount not being monitored. Although supervision should be a model to be attained, the described models, which explicitly allow the presence of unsupervised cooperative institutions, may hinder the development of the sector, because they help these situations to persist and because of the effect that the bankruptcy or problems of the non-supervised banks can have on the entire system.