Although SMEs provide employment to a large share of the labor force in developed and developing countries, they receive limited external funding compared to large firms and face a financing gap. This problem is not specific to developing countries; SMEs in developed countries also suffer from a...

Public credit guarantees have become a popular instrument to try to expand lending to financially constrained firms. In many instances, these schemes have proven useful to increase access to finance. However, public interventions to extend guarantees need to be designed, evaluated, and monitored...

Firms from emerging economies increased their bond financing significantly after the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The patterns of corporate borrowing in East Asia and Latin America offer very different lessons. In East Asia, the main component behind the overall growth in bond financing was...

During the past decades, firms from emerging economies have significantly increased the amount of financing obtained in capital markets. Whereas the literature argues that international markets have been an important contributor to this process, the role of domestic markets is mostly unknown. By...

This paper surveys the literature to document the main stylized facts, risks, and policy challenges related to the expansion of global nonfinancial corporate debt after the 2008–09 global financial crisis. Nonfinancial corporate debt steadily increased after the crisis, especially in emerging...

Investing through online automated platforms, known as robo-advisors, is increasingly popular. Robo-advisors expand access to wealth management services by making it easier and less costly to open investments accounts and receive financial advice, as well as plan and automate investment...

This paper surveys the literature to document the main stylized facts, risks, and policy challenges related to the expansion of global nonfinancial corporate debt after the 2008–09 global financial crisis. Nonfinancial corporate debt steadily increased after the crisis, especially in emerging...

As public and private financial institutions innovate to expand the range of financial products that households and firms use, questions about the additionality of different services have become central. Additional financial services are those that are not already provided by the private sector...

Big data is transforming financial services around the world. Advances in data analytics and computational power are allowing firms to exploit data in an easier, faster, and more reliable manner, and at a larger scale. By using big data, financial firms and new entrants from other sectors are...