Correspondent Banking and Trade Finance Risk Management in West African Banking Networks

Abstract

This article develops an integrative decision framework for correspondent and trade finance risk management in West African banking networks. The review addresses three linked problems: measurement that is fragmented across functions, a weak treatment of uncertainty, and the separation of commercial decisions from risk governance. A structured narrative synthesis draws on finance, analytics, technology, operations, governance, and sector-specific literature, comparing what individual studies examined rather than treating them as an undifferentiated bundle. The resulting framework organizes evidence across six dimensions, namely counterparty risk, AML controls, sanctions screening, trade document risk, liquidity and FX, and financial inclusion, and it defines safe and inclusive trade finance connectivity as the focal decision criterion. The proposed sequence of data definition, baseline construction, causal or comparative estimation, risk adjustment, scenario testing, governance review, and post implementation learning is anchored in a value specification in which incremental benefit is reduced by implementation cost, expected loss, capital and liquidity charges, and any measurable customer or stakeholder harm. The analysis shows that isolated efficiency or revenue measures are insufficient because they omit implementation costs, tail losses, customer effects, and timing. The article contributes a reusable architecture linking economic evaluation with accountable execution, and it specifies research propositions, measurement fields, validation tests, and reporting practices suitable for empirical testing. No confidential company data were used, and no causal claims are made about named employers. Its principal implication is that decision quality improves when value, risk, behavior, and control effectiveness are evaluated within one auditable model.