In December, we even had a welcome relief from our usual regimen of being regularly pelted with brickbats by the local commentariat when The Banker, a professional magazine of the British Financial Times Group, awarded yours truly the title of Central Banker of the Year 2012, Africa – a trophy to add to the tableau vivant of the hypothetical scenario with which I began this missive.
Taxation is of course only one aspect of the heightened policy attention now being given to banks given their role in the crisis generally and not least in the damage they have, directly and indirectly, done to national budgets. Never more, I think, will banks be given the leeway to expand their intermediation activities with only a light regulatory touch to verify soundness.