Financial Services

Long-awaited plans to set up a ratings agency to gauge stability levels in Algeria’s banks seem to be back on track, with the process for selecting a monitoring system now gathering pace. The launch of the new ratings system for the nation’s banks has the potential to boost confidence in the sector, while paving the way for increased lending in line...

In addition to reforms made to the country’s monetary policy framework, the new legal measures relating to money and credit taken in 2010 (order no. 10-01 of August 26, 2010) have strengthened the legal anchoring of financial stability as an explicit mission of the Bank of Algeria.

High levels of liquidity and a total loan book that accounts for just half of deposits characterise the Algerian banking sector. The industry remains dominated by publicly owned banks, which constitute around nine-tenths of deposits and loans, though foreign-backed private banks are major players in trade finance and are highly profitable....

In order to stoke growth following three years of underwhelming performance, central banks around the world have sought to pump liquidity into domestic markets. A variety of extraordinary and one-off measures – which include a combination of asset purchases and loan operations, along with near-zero interest rates – have been used in Europe and the...

The Algerian banking industry remains dominated by public sector players, though both the public and private sectors have seen profits rise in recent years. Public sector banks have become profitable after a long period of restructuring, while private sector players have benefitted from a series of recent trade reforms and limited competition.