In this paper, we provide an overview of the concerns surrounding the variations in the calculation of risk-weighted assets (RWAs) across banks and jurisdictions and how this might undermine the Basel III capital adequacy framework. We discuss the key drivers behind the differences in these...

This paper presents a "second-generation" solvency stress testing framework extending applied stress testing work centered on Cihák (2007). The framework seeks enriching stress tests in terms of risk-sensitivity, while keeping them flexible, transparent, and user-friendly. The main...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

Universal Health Coverage is a powerful framework for a nation aiming to protect their population against health risks. However, countries face multiple challenges in implementing, achieving and sustaining UHC strategies. Sharing and learning from diverse country experiences may enable to foster...

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a crucial influence on the economic development of every nation, but access to formal finance remains a barrier. Similarly, financial institutions encounter challenges in the assessment of SMEs' creditworthiness for the provision of financing....

So far studies estimating sales response functions on the basis of store-specific data either consider heterogeneity or functional flexibility. That is why in this contribution a model is developed possessing both these features. It is a multilayer perceptron with store-specific coefficients...

The paper presents some aspects regarding the use of pattern recognition techniques and neural networks for the activity evolution diagnostication and prediction by means of a set of indicators. Starting from the indicators set there is defined a measure on the patterns set, measure representing...

Accurate forecasting of changes in stock market indices can provide financial managers and individual investors with strategically valuable information. However, predicting the closing prices of stock indices remains a challenging task because stock price movements are characterized by high...