Conference organized by the Banque de France/FERDI on « Promoting Financial Integration in Africa » May 27, 2014, Banque de France (Paris, France)

The Banque de France and FERDI are pleased to invite you to the conference titled “promoting financial integration in Africa” to be held on May 27th, 2014 in Paris.

The process of financial integration consists in strengthening the links between national financial systems to create a broader financial space offering a wider choice of funding and investment opportunities. Concerning both the banking system and financial markets, financial integration allows economies of scale and enhances competition. It provides better access to financial services and, generally, reduces their costs as well as allowing the allocation of capital towards the most profitable projects. Financial integration is thus an instrument of financial development which itself favours economic growth.

In this perspective, the implementation of financial integration policies raises a number of issues: a) how to make institutional integration, i.e. the adoption of common rules and instruments, translate into a de facto integration via an intensification of financial flows between countries? b) how to coordinate financial integration with other dimensions of integration –monetary, commercial and economic – in order to increase its benefits? c) how to cope with new risks associated with the increase in regional financial flows, and particularly, the risk of financial crisis contagion? and d) how to articulate Africa’s, regional financial integration with global financial integration?

Papers and presentations of the conference

Presentations