The Euro-Mediterranean financial area
This document tackles the crucial issue of a Mediterranean financial area and how it should be organized to contribute to development in South and East Mediterranean Countries (SEMCs), including creating a regional bank that would collect local savings and direct them towards funding structuring projects.
The two authors begin with an observation that goes against numerous assumptions and clichés. They consider that rather than financial aid, the Southern Mediterranean, and more particularly the Maghreb, needs to collect and use local savings more efficiently. This means that any debate on this region should carry the conviction that “foreign investment is not the vector of all development” and that it is misguided to underline “the particular nature of each of the three countries”, which could thus each benefit from a specific measure.
The authors
Guillaume Almeras is a consultant in strategy and organization, with a focus on banking and finance. A graduate of the ENS and a former banker, he provides expert advice on devising and setting up reforms and programmes in developing countries, involving liaison with multilateral institutions. Abderrahmane Hadj Nacer is an international merchant banker. A Doctor in economic science and a former governor of the Central Bank of Algeria, he has created several merchant banks in the Mediterranean, including the International Maghreb Merchant Bank (IM Bank), the first private bank in Algeria.
Contents
- Introduction
- Diagnosis
- Overview of banking markets in the Maghreb: products, customers, expectations
- Financial transfers: assessment and barriers
- Immigrant populations from the Maghreb: how they behave, what they need
- Thoughts and propositions Emergence of a Euro-Maghreb financial market
- The public/private way
- Conclusion
