The bank of issue is the Central Bank of the West African States (Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest-BCEAO), based in Dakar, which also acts in that capacity for Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. Togo has a 10% share in the BCEAO, the development bank of which has its headquarters in Lomé.
The most important commercial and savings banks include the Banque Internationale de L'Afrique (BIA), ECOBANK Togo, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the Libyan Arab-Togolese Bank of Foreign Commerce, the Banque Togolaise de Commerce et de L'Industrie (BTCI), and the Union Bank of Togo (the latter two with a state share of 35%).
Development banks include the Togolese Development Bank, founded in 1967, which has a 50% state share; the 36.4% state-owned National Farm Credit Fund; and the state-owned National Investment Co., which is intended to mobilize savings, guarantee loans to small- and medium-sized domestic enterprises, and amortize the public debt. The banking and credit systems are not well developed, and large sections of the population remain outside the monetary economy. The banking system was virtually shut down by the general strike in the first half of 1993 and a limited service operated until the second half of 1994.
The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $220.3 million. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $327.0 million. The money market rate, the rate at which financial institutions lend to one another in the short term, was 4.95%. The discount rate, the interest rate at which the central bank lends to financial institutions in the short term, was 6.5%.
There are no securities exchanges in Togo.