Abrar Anwar: “Banks today finance more than 50% of private sector projects”

At the head of the Mauritius Bankers Association, Abrar Anwar outlines the priorities of a solid Mauritian banking sector facing a demanding international environment. Between competitiveness, sustainable finance, digitalization and African roots, it details the levers to transform financial performance into sustainable and inclusive socio-economic impact.

The recent MBA conference is titled From Competitiveness to Sustainability: The Banking Imperative. Concretely, how can Mauritian banks reconcile international competitiveness and sustainability imperatives without compromising their financial performance? The MBA conference demonstrated that Mauritian banks do not face a structural problem but rather operate in a complex fiscal and international environment. To remain competitive while meeting sustainability requirements, banks must rely on their expertise in international transactions and further develop sustainable finance, an area where Mauritius has already proven itself. Faced with financial centers like Dubai which are progressing rapidly, it is also essential to preserve an attractive framework as well as an image of a financial center that is both solid and credible.

The banking sector is the largest contributor to the national tax system and the largest contributor to the Corporate Income Tax.”

In a global context marked by geopolitical tensions and rapid technological disruptions, what are today the main growth areas for the Mauritian banking sector and for the Mauritius International Financial Centre? The main growth areas for the Mauritian banking sector and for the Mauritius International Financial Center inevitably involve a more assertive positioning towards Africa. For good reason, it is above all a question of attracting regional centers of companies with investments on the continent, of bringing in strategic teams such as 'regional treasuries' or 'procurement' and of encouraging the establishment of companies in Mauritius. Thanks to its trade agreements and its strategic position between Africa and Asia, Mauritius is ideally placed to direct investment flows to Africa. The country also has a key role to play as a regional hub for sustainable finance and as a platform for cross-border payments, particularly with the work already underway within COMESA to strengthen its status as a 'regional payments hub'.

Digitalization was at the heart of the discussions. How far are banks in Mauritius ready to go in digital transformation, and what obstacles - regulatory, technological or human - still need to be removed? In Mauritius, even if there is no 100% digital bank, the existing legal framework allows such a bank to emerge in the coming years. Traditional banks are already in full digitalization: customer access