- Title
- The nature of competition in the banking sector and its effect on financial inclusion in South Africa
- Creator
- Ngonyama, Nomasomi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7536-9297
- Subject
- Banks and banking -- South Africa
- Subject
- Competition -- South Africa
- Subject
- Financial services industry
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28661
- Identifier
- vital:74492
- Description
- Competition and access to financial services are lauded as key ingredients in the fight against poverty. While competition enhances markets, fosters innovation, productivity and growth, financial inclusion allows the poor to save, access credit and insurance thereby allowing them to meaningfully contribute to economic growth and also smooth their consumption. Moreover, competition reduces the cost of finance, thereby further expanding the availability of financial services. This suggests an important relationship between competition in the banking sector and financial inclusion. Research in this area is still in its infancy and little consensus exists on both whether the relationship is a robust one or not. There is no unanimity on the direction of causality or whether competition in the financial sector is good or bad for markets. This study examines the nexus between banking competition and financial inclusion in Upper-middle income countries. It employed a panel data set over the period 2011-2017 and Generalized Methods of Moments technique was employed to answer this enquiry. The findings of this study suggest that market power is not bad for financial inclusion in upper-middle income countries. Moreover, the study found that bank competition does not matter in banking the unbanked population in Upper-middle income countries. The implication of the findings of this study is that the focus of the policy makers should not be on policies that reduces concentration and market power in the banking sector, but be on measures that encourages contestability. The threat of entry is sufficient to make banks behave in a competitive manner.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2023
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xvii, 233 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Management and Commerce
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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View Details | SOURCE1 | Ngonyama N 200806840 PhD.pdf | 77 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |