With a little help from the banks

Abstract

Africa is a source of large-scale capital flight. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how banks facilitate capital flight from Africa. There is growing evidence that subsidiaries of the world’s major banks have been heavily involved in facilitating capital flight and money laundering. Banks and financial institutions therefore are an important piece of the puzzle to better understand the drivers of capital flight from Africa. Banks are also an important component in the development of more effective measures to curb the problem. The article argues that to improve the regulation of the banking and finance sectors, there is a need for more detailed knowledge on how banks actually operate as facilitators and the mechanisms applied.