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.

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...

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....

Management Information Systems are meant to create methods for data management, leading to better decision making. By designing, implementing and using business information systems in innovative ways, the effectiveness and efficiency of every-day activities significantly increases. In the...

Accurate prediction of stock market behavior is a challenging issue for financial forecasting. Artificial neural networks, such as multilayer perceptron have been established as better approximation and classification models for this domain. This study proposes a chemical reaction optimization...

The use of advanced predictive techniques and reasoning models has greatly assisted clinicians in improving the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of diabetes. Although numerous studies have focused on the relationship between abnormal blood glucose levels and diabetes, few have focused on the...

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...