High-Level Roundtable on Africa and New Global Finance: Macroeconomic Policy and Regulatory Responses
Finance in Africa is undergoing a rapid transformation, changing the architecture of domestic financial systems and redefining their links with global markets. Many African governments have borrowed from international financial markets for the first time; there are signs that foreign direct investment is diversifying away from natural resources; pan-African banks are becoming an important presence in many countries on the continent, often replacing long-standing European banks; and mobile banking is having a substantial impact on financial inclusion.
- How are African regulators responding to these developments? How can they best manage cross-border capital flows?
- What opportunities and challenges do the rapid growth of cross-border and mobile banking pose?
- What have been the tangible impacts of global financial standards?
To explore these questions, the Global Economic Governance programme and the Political Economy of Financial Markets project at St Antony’s College convened a high-level group of experts from national regulators, academia, the private sector, and global financial organizations to examine the economics and political economy of these new developments and their implications for regulatory design.
This report presents an overview of the discussions in the workshop, and also brings together the short thought-pieces that several participants submitted prior to the meeting.
