I. B. MATSENKO Candidate of Economic Sciences Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences Keywords: Africa, financial development, regional banks, pan-African banks, mergers and acquisitions On the African continent, new and growing local banking groups are being formed with branches in several countries. These regional banking organizations (so-called pan-African banks, as defined by the IMF experts) are expanding their presence on the continent, creating cross-border networks and absorbing other banks, including foreign ones, which have traditionally been dominant here. New pan-African players are driving the development of financial services and economic integration in Africa, helping unlock the potential of a fast-growing region. However, this relatively new process in the financial development of African countries (such as microfinance and mobile banking - the provision of services through mobile means of communication) began with a low initial level and significantly lagged behind the developing countries of Asia and Latin America. STARTING POINT Despite the differences in the degree of development of the banking sector in different countries of the continent, it is generally accepted to speak of its weak development in relation to Africa. The main disadvantages are low capacity, low efficiency, and limited public access to banking services. Thus, the number of bank branches here is extremely small (only 3.1 per 100 thousand adults, compared to 9.6 in other developing countries), and the volume of banking assets in most African countries does not exceed the assets of one medium-sized bank in developed countries. African banks, especially in low-income countries, do not operate efficiently enough, due to their small size, high operating costs, significant risks and lack of competition. 1 Three-quarters of the African adult population (compared to almost half of adults in the entire developing world) they do not have a bank account due to the lack of suffic ... Read more