Bank concentration, country income and financial development in SADC

Abstract

The varying levels of financial development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with South Africa at the upper end and most countries at the lower end, clearly reflect elements of concentration of financial development in the region. This study reflects on a number of empirical tests conducted around the issue of bank concentration within the SADC region. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index reveals a high level of concentration of bank assets in SADC, which drastically reduces when South Africa is excluded. The result implies that bank assets in SADC are concentrated in South Africa, but fairly distributed across other countries. Panel Dynamic Fixed and Random Effects models have established that bank concentration constrains development of the financial sectors in all SADC countries, regardless of income level, although the effect is highly significant in low-income countries. The study also established mixed and opposing effects of South Africa’s fi nancial development on bank concentration in SADC. The findings suggest that the expansion and diversification of the banking sectors can enhance financial development in SADC countries. Further, South Africa’s banking institutions that are expanding to other SADC countries are either part of the large and dominant few or do not have an impact on bank concentration in these countries.