Benkhalfa: “Foreign banks in Algeria are specialized in transfer of hard currency abroad”

The General Delegate of the Association of banks and financial bodies in Algeria, Abderahmane Benkhalfa, has said that 85% of the financing of foreign trade activities in Algeria are currently carried out through a network of public banking institutions.

•  He said that the share of the financial market for private banks was set at just 15% while that of public banks accounted for about 90%.
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• Abderahmane Benkhalfa said in a statement to “Echorouk” that the hegemony of public banks was blatant and this tendency could not be reversed as long as Algeria did not engage in a specialization of banks and financial bodies in a specific line of activity in keeping with the guidelines issued by the Bank of Algeria.
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• He also indicated that 100% of public companies in Algeria and around 70% of those from the private sector resorted  to state-run banks to acquire credits by going through the documentary credit procedure still upheld by the Algerian government despite  expostulations from some economic operators.
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• In this connection, the finance minister, Karim Djoudi, has recently affirmed that the government will stick to the documentary credit procedure which has been dubbed as a major hurdle by numerous economic operators in their import / export operations.
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• Karim Djoudi declared to this effect that the documentary credits would remain the sole mode of payment of imports, while recalling by the same token that certain facilities had been decided by the government for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises whose exchanges don’t exceed 2 million dinars.
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• The finance minister stressed that the adoption of the documentary credit (CREDOC) was meant to contribute to stamping out the scourge of bribery and corruption in Algeria.
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• He further indicated that the Algerian tax regime was quite better than that in force in many Mediterranean countries as it is geared to fighting fraud and corruption and encouraging national and foreign investment.
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