Since there is no regulatory framework in place to license MFIs, the Central Bank gave conditional license to the Wau Microbank (WMB) under the existing Banks and Financial Institutions Act 2000 to operate as a licensed financial institution and allow it to collect public deposits.
More recently, however, low interest rates have fuelled an increase in borrowing and a tendency of firms to borrow short term, rather than long term. But despite this development over the past year, the ratio of short-term to long-term obligations of euro area firms is not high. The flattening of the yield curve has exerted some pressure on bank profits.