Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Public Disclosure Authorized BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Country Level Savings Assessment Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized January 2006 Monica Lindh de Montoya, independent consultant Rani Deshpande, Microfinance Analyst, CGAP Jasmina Glisovic-Mezieres, Associate Microfinance Analyst, CGAP List of Acronyms BiH Bosna i Hercegovina (Bosnia and Herzegovina) CBBH Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina CGAP Consultative Group to Assist the Poor FBiH Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development KM Convertible mark (also known as BAM) MCO Microcredit organization OHR Office of the High Representative RS Republika Srpska ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Moving Forward, Looking Back ............................................................ 3 Clients: Learning to Trust ................................................................................................................... 4 Unmet Demand for Deposit Services is Significant ................................................................. 4 Demand is Constrained by Habits and Trust ............................................................................ 5 Micro Level: A Paradox of Incentives and Ability ............................................................................ 6 Dimensions of Access ............................................................................................................... 7 Ability, But Little Incentive ...................................................................................................... 8 Incentive, But No Ability .......................................................................................................... 8 Meso Level: Still Embryonic ............................................................................................................... 9 Training and Technical Assistance ........................................................................................... 9 Supervisory Structures .............................................................................................................. 9 Payment Alternatives ............................................................................................................... 10 Funding Flows ......................................................................................................................... 10 Macro Level: A Red Herring ............................................................................................................. 11 Banking Laws May Discourage Small Deposit Mobilization.................................................. 11 Microfinance Law is Less of an Obstacle Than Thought ....................................................... 11 Conclusion and Suggestions ............................................................................................................... 13 Annexes Annex 1: Matrix of Opportunities, Obstacles, and Suggested Actions ................................... 15 Annex 2: Key Economic Indicators – Bosnia and Herzegovina ............................................. 16 Annex 3: Deposits in Selected BiH Banks .............................................................................. 17 Annex 4: Conditions for demand accounts in selected BiH banks ......................................... 18 Annex 5: Leading MCOs in BiH, 2004 ................................................................................... 19 Annex 6: Sources Consulted .................................................................................................... 10 Annex 7: List of Interviewees .................................................................................................. 22 Annex 8: Branch distribution of largest six banks in BiH .......................................................24 iii Bosnia and Herzegovina - Country Level Savings Assessment EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report summarizes the fourth test of CGAP’s Country-Level Savings Assessment Tool, which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).1 The purpose of the toolkit is to help government agencies, donors, international networks, and technical service providers to define potential strategies for increasing poor people’s access to high-quality deposit services. The methodology examines four levels of the financial system: client demand, institutional capacity, industry infrastructure and support services, and policy. The assessment concludes with suggested strategies for improving the quality and quantity of deposit services available to poor and low-income households. Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the process of rebuilding its economy and society after a destructive war which ended in late 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Accords. The banking system has received considerable attention and is today highly competitive, strictly regulated, and considered to be the most successful sector of the economy. However, a substantial amount of currency is still outside the banking system compared with other transitional economies. Demand for savings services is constrained by mistrust in the banking system and the loss of savings habits during the war period. A recent survey shows that unmet demand is significant. However, the savings products currently on offer do not seem to provide the services that the unbanked population needs since banks do not direct their efforts towards mobilizing savings from the poor. While micro- credit organizations (MCOs) know the low-income market and have incentives to gather deposits, they lack legal structures and the technical capacity to do so. Supervisory structures have been the focus of intense rebuilding efforts, but training and technical assistance for small-balance deposit mobilization, electronic payment methods, and liquidity management alternatives are all in need of development. Based on the information gathered though this country assessment, seven suggestions for promoting quality deposit services for low-income people emerged: 1. Conduct more research on the unbanked population to provide information on their habits and needs. 2. Carry out financial education focused on savings with low-income and unbanked clients to provide information on banking services and rebuild trust. 3. Develop specialized products and services for low-income clients. 4. Encourage partnerships between institutions that bring together the capacity, permission, and incentive to mobilize small deposits. 5. Offer technical assistance for bank downscaling. 6. Expand the e-payment infrastructure to bring more money into the system and increase the con- venience of access. 7. Stimulate stronger communication and policy dialogue between policy makers and microcredit institutions to clarify the legal infrastructure and to inform policymakers about the needs of the microfinance industry. __________________________ 1 For more information on the Tool, please see http://microfinancegateway.org/resource_centers/savings/country_level_assessments. 1 Bosnia and Herzegovina - Country Level Savings Assessment INTRODUCTION BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: MOVING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK This report summarizes the results of CGAP’s country-level savings assessment in Bosnia and BiH is a multiethnic European country with a Herzegovina (BiH). The assessment was conduct- turbulent recent history, and it ‘moves forward ed to test the Country Savings Assessment Toolkit with one eye on the rearview mirror,’ as one under development as part of CGAP’s Savings informant aptly noted. The series of wars marking Initiative.2 The purpose of the tool is to help the disintegration of the federation of nations that government agencies, donors, international was Yugoslavia reached BiH in 1992, resulting in networks, and technical service providers to 250,000 of the prewar population of 4.4 million define potential strategies for increasing poor killed or registered as missing, and about half of people’s access to high-quality deposit services. the population forced out of their homes. The United Nations recorded around 1,325,000 Country-Level Savings Assessments refugees and exiles. The social fabric of the gauge the level and characteristics of client demand country was severely affected, and the country’s for financial savings among low-income clients in productive infrastructure, which had been heavily a given country, and identify opportunities and industrial, was nearly completely destroyed. constraints to meeting that demand. While poor Only a small fraction of the prewar working pop- people save in a variety of ways, including infor- ulation of 900,000 was still employed after the mal and in-kind savings as well as formal savings, war.5 Much of the population’s asset base, includ- this assessment examines the supply and demand ing housing, vehicles, farm equipment and live- of deposits in formal financial institutions.3 The stock and household possessions was also lost or methodology examines three levels of the financial destroyed.6 system: 1) the capacity for small deposit mobiliza- tion among financial service providers (“micro” The banking system that existed at the level); 2) financial infrastructure and second-tier end of the war in 1995 was