LE CAPITAL

A series of technological advancement in the financial world recently got me thinking about the future of the banking system as we know it today. The inherent role of banks is centered on taking deposits, making payments and providing or brokering funding. Today, their deposit-taking role competes with money market instruments proving better returns for idle money. As such, the deposit growth of the top 5 American banks is negatively correlated to FED rates and the subsequent attractiveness of money markets investment avenues. Money markets, together with debt capital markets, are also and increasingly duplicating the lending role assumed by the banking system. Lending to large corporates has got increasingly competitive and unprofitable for banks because of the lower interest rates they command. Banks are better off brokering deals for debt markets in return for a fee . Banks’ transactional role is not better off. Last year has seen for the first time, the amount of globa

A number of African countries are betting on rail to achieve regional or transnational integration. Continent wide, an increasing amount of regional rail projects are being implemented. In the north: Ethiopia to Djibouti, West: Niger to Togo and east Africa: plans of linking Rwanda to Ethiopia. That could contribute to making the continent a giant free trade area ; a giant step for a fully integrated and interconnected Africa. With an existing network of 5033 kms ideally position between mineral extraction areas (center, east and south) and two principal sea exit points in the South: Durban via Zambia and Benguela via Angola, the DRC can find in rail an interesting competitive advantage for its trade. Solely looking at it from the option of mineral and good transport, this represents a cost effective and faster option than road (the continent still counts a number of board posts). Locally, the privatization of those railways, at least partially, might be the only way to