A country’s legal and judicialenvironment can help or hinder access to credit. In additionto the banking law governing the organization of the sector,the operations of credit institutions are subject to severallaws. Four components of Malian business law areparticularly relevant in assessing the position ofcreditors, the law on secured transactions, the law oncollective proceedings, the law on information-sharingrelated to debtors (sometimes called the credit reportinglaw), and the law on collection and enforcement proceedings.If creditors cannot have confidence in their legalenvironment, they will be inclined to lend only to personsthey know well. In this regard, it is telling to note thatin Mali, the 50 biggest clients account for 39.3 percent ofthe credit extended by banks (although this percentage hasfallen in recent times). Furthermore, access to creditremains a major constraint in the Malian business world.Although the reasons are not confined solely to the legalsphere, it is important to point out that, according to the2010 Enterprise Survey, Malian enterprises cited access tocredit as the main constraint hampering the businessenvironment (43.9 percent of enterprises). The same studyshowed that in the case of loans involving a security right,the value of the assets pledged stood at 201.4 percent ofthe amount borrowed, reflecting the lack of confidence bybanks in their ability to actually enforce their rights. Inaddition, in view of the fact that 58 percent of loansrequire a pledged asset which, in most instances, takes theform of immovable property, persons who do not own suchassets are, de facto, shut out of the system and unable toseek credit.
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