The financial turmoil of the late 1990s prompted a broad search for tools and techniques for detecting and preventing financial crises, and more recent episodes of instability have high lighted the importance of continuous monitoring of financial systems as a tool for preventing crises. This...

This Financial System Stability Assessment on the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) reviews overall stability assessment. The fiscal position of the governments in the region has deteriorated sharply in recent years. A source of strength of the ECCU has been the large historical presence...

Almost all formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jamaica have access to checking or saving accounts, but the financial sector is scarcely used to finance their investments. The lack of funding for the SME sector, or its high cost, has a negative impact on entrepreneurship and business...

This note reviews some concepts of global liquidity and discusses measurement approaches that have been used by various interlocutors, including at the BIS, by Fund staff, and in academia. Some measures that could be regularly monitored by policy makers are presented

This paper presents evidence that spillovers through bank lending, as opposed to trade linkages and country characteristics, can help explain contagion. We construct a measure of competition for bank funds and find evidence in favor of a common lender effect in the Mexican, Thai, and Russian...

Loan review is a process routinely used by banks to assess the current value of loan portfolios. Provisioning is a technique to translate loan review results into the balance sheet. It allows for ongoing valuation of loans. Both are core elements of credit risk management and important to...

This paper is an analysis of Japan’s credit channel. The economic condition has no hindrance, but credit demand showed an inert performance. The state’s policies have helped the flow of finance and prevent bankruptcy, but several other aspects act as an impediment to credit control. The...

To test the role of bank lending in transmitting currency crisis we examine a panel of BIS data on bank flows to 30 emerging markets disaggregated by 11 banking centers. We find that bank exposures to a crisis country help predict bank flows in third countries after the Mexican and Asian crisis,...