|
|
Comprehensive strategies need to be designed by banking and financial authorities and institutions working with unserved people, and by optimal use of digital infrastructures. Services however need to remain affordable to low income populations and sustainable for financial services providers. This strategy is detailed in the Marrakech Declaration that WSBI members adopted at their recent congress.
The WSBI also calls upon the G20 to improve the international financial architecture in an interconnected world. Global regulations, such as the Basel III accord, are often designed as a set of measures for large, internationally active credit institutions but are then applied to the banking sector as a whole. Decentralised banking models, such as the business model of savings banks, will suffer disproportionally from Basel III and more specifically in the field of SME lending. Furthermore the interaction between Basel III and the treatment of Global SIFIs needs to be carefully assessed to avoid distortion of competion.
Finally, the WSBI welcomes the work carried out by the Financial Stability Board to assess the implementation of further regulation on shadow banking in order to avoid the circumvention of banking regulation and therefore the competitive disadvantage for regulated banks that shadow banking practices involves.