Abstract :
[en] Regional foreign banks expanded quickly over the past decade in developing and emerging
countries and have a growing influence in banking systems. We question whether the development
of African regional foreign banks, also called Pan-African banks, influences financial inclusion of
firms and households. To this end, we combine the World Bank Global Findex database and the
World Bank Enterprise Surveys with a hand-collected database on the presence of regional foreign
banks. We find that Pan-African banks presence increases firms’ access to credit and limited
evidence that they favor financial access of the middle class by restoring confidence in banks. We
suggest that this impact is related to the adoption of an aggressive strategy aiming at gaining market
shares rather than through the exploitation of informational and technological advantages.
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