Forthcoming Book to Highlight Systemic Failures in the Global Financial Sector and role of Politics
Corporate Finance (Photo Credit: The Blue Diamond Gallery)
The results of five years of in-depth research, forthcoming book, Money, Mange, Suffrage written by investigative journalist Pamela Banks charts the history of failures in the banking sector world-wide attributable not so much to economic failure in the marketplace but more so as a consequence of political influence and mismanagement.
Banks takes both a historical and global perspective on the issues, opening with case studies examining the crisis of 1763 which erupted in Amsterdam with the collapse of Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky and Leendert Pieter de Neufville’s bank triggered by state interference in grain sales.
This was followed a decade later by the British collapse of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down which spread affecting 22 banks, the East India Company and relations with the banks of the American colonies during the British credit crisis of 1772-1773.
In the Twentieth Century crises the Showa financial crisis in Japan during the 1920s led to political maneuvering which led to the Prime Minister’s downfall. The BCCI failure of the 1990s is covered in depth charting a bank which was used both by governments for funding opposition groups during the Cold War – the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency maintained accounts at BCCI – as well as money laundering by criminal organizations.
Turning to the contemporary environment, a large part of the book is devoted to the story of the Afriland First Bank and its subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Cameroon financial house led by majority shareholder Dr. Paul Fokam. Concerns of mismanagement led to it being taken over by the Central Bank of the Congo in mid 2022 to protect savers and on the recommendation of the finance minister to inject $50 million.
While the story is still unfolding, in the pages of the book the story illustrates how politics can be mobilized to benefit a banking institution in turmoil. The book identifies Dr. Fokam recruitment of several personalities and lawyers, notably the Minister of Justice, a lawyer regarded as having roots as a pollical supporter of Joseph Kabila. “Dr. Fokam appears to be surrounding himself with anti-Tshisekedi (Presidential) supporters to achieve his aims ahead of forthcoming elections. The others walk on money, they have a price…” said one interviewee about Fokam perception by local interested parties.
“To be a minister, and to defend the interests of a foreign businessman to the detriment of one’s own country, would be high treason if it were true,” said one counsellor at the DRC embassy in Ghana, whom Banks interviewed in the course of her research.
Another Ambassador highlighted the fundamental problem of the intersection of politics and banking “If the DRC government wants to remain credible, it must take this threat seriously and manage any accomplices of Mr. Fokam who seek to undermine the interests of the Democratic Republic at the international court of arbitration.”
Money, Mange, Suffrage is due to be published in Q1, 2024 in digital and paper formats and will be available for purchase online and in good bookstores.