Tanzania - Banking and securities

On 5 February 1967, Tanzania nationalized all banks after the adoption of the Arusha Declaration. From then until 1991, banking was a state monopoly led by the central Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the National Bank of Commerce (NBC). In 1991, the financial services sector was opened to private and foreign capital. In 1993, the first private banks opened their doors. These were Meridien BIAO and Standard Chartered, the latter being among the UK-owned banks that were nationalized in 1967. Meridien's Zambian-based African network collapsed in 1995, and Stanbic of South Africa took over the Tanzanian subsidiary after its seizure by the BoT. The Kenyan-owned Trust Bank opened in March 1995, to be followed by Eurafrican Bank (a Belgian-led venture). Also in early 1995, the only private bank to be majority-owned by indigenous Tanzanians, First Adili Bank, began business.

In 2002, the BoT was still the central bank and bank of issue, provided advice to the NBC. The NBC, which used to accounted for over 75% of the country's transactions, was split in 1997 into NBC-1997 and the National Microfinance Bank (NMB). Other Tanzanian banks include the People's Bank of Zanzibar, the Tanzania Investment Bank, the Tanzania Housing Bank, the Rural Cooperative and Development Bank (CRDB), and the Tanganyika Post Office Savings Bank. Foreign banks include Citibank, Stanbic Bank, Standard Charter, Bank of Great Britain, EuroAfrican Bank, Akiba Commercial Bank, and Exim Bank.

The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $874.0 million. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $1.9 billion. The discount rate, the interest rate at which the central bank lends to financial institutions in the short term, was 8.7%.

The establishment of a local stock market, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), occurred in March 1998. By 2003 there were four companies listed on the exchange with a total maket capitalization of about $500 million: Tanzania Breweries Limited, Tanzania Tea Packers Limited, TOL Limited (producer of industrial gases), and Tanzania Cigarette Company Limited.