Banking Reconfiguration and Monetary Sovereignty in the Digital Age: PI-SPI and the e-CFA as Instruments of Institutional Refoundation in WAEMU

Etienne Fakaba Sissoko and Khalid Dembélé
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Khalid Dembélé: Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako - USSGB - Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako

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Abstract: Digital monetary infrastructures are transforming the institutional architecture of money. In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has moved toward interoperable instant payments through the PI-SPI platform, while policy discussions on central bank digital currencies have opened the question of a possible regional retail instrument, here designated as the e-CFA. This article examines whether these instruments should be read as neutral technical innovations, as mechanisms of financial inclusion, or as institutional devices that redistribute monetary power. The analysis combines monetary institutionalism, banking intermediation theory and critical approaches to algorithmic regulation. It uses a qualitative documentary method and a comparative reading of three CBDC experiences: China's e-CNY, Nigeria's eNaira and the Bahamian Sand Dollar. The article argues that the core issue is not digitization itself, but the governance of programmability, transaction metadata, technical infrastructure and the future role of banks. PI-SPI can reduce fragmentation and transaction delays, but it also creates a common operational locus for payment flows. A direct retail e-CFA, if designed without tiering, holding limits, legal safeguards and bank participation, could intensify deposit migration and weaken the financing capacity of commercial banks. Conversely, a regulated two-tier design could requalify banks as trusted interfaces, credit providers and value-added service institutions. The article contributes the concept of distributed monetary sovereignty: a model in which public monetary authority is preserved while algorithmic rules, data governance and operational infrastructures remain legally bounded, auditable and institutionally plural.

Keywords: financial inclusion JEL codes: E42; O55; O33; G21; E51; algorithmic governance; banking disintermediation; monetary sovereignty; WAEMU; BCEAO; e-CFA; PI-SPI; central bank digital currency; central bank digital currency PI-SPI e-CFA BCEAO WAEMU monetary sovereignty banking disintermediation algorithmic governance financial inclusion JEL codes: E42 E51 G21 O33 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02-25
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Published in 2026, ⟨10.5281/zenodo.17249540⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05607364

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17249540

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