The profound structural reform underway in Eastern Europe has revealed the weakness of the banking sector there; macroeconomic stability and other reforms are thereby threatened. After an overview of recent developments in the banking sectors of these countries, a model is developed that...

This paper analyzes the origins, implications, and solutions for the Asian financial crisis. From the perspective of a member of the Executive Board of the IMF, as Asian problems were building, the IMF overlooked weaknesses in bank and corporate balance sheets in much of Asia: the IMF was...

Financial sector reform in the Baltic countries is reviewed in light of the banking crises that emerged during the reform period. It is argued that the crises had their roots in the structural deficiencies specific to planned economies and the financial environment that developed before and...

This paper proposes a stylized sequencing of banking supervision and bank restructuring measures designed to complement and expedite the adoption of indirect instruments of monetary policy. Appropriate sequencing reflects both operational considerations and macroeconomic effects of structural...

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,...

The stress testing analysis in the United States was based on publicly available information and on models that are subject to a considerable degree of uncertainty. The stress tests illustrate important vulnerabilities in the banking sector. It highlights the importance of macrofinancial...

This Technical Note reviews banking sector soundness and stress testing in Serbia. Serbia’s banking sector is well capitalized and liquid, but the corporate sector’s weak performance is a source of concern because of its adverse impact on nonperforming loans. Stress tests indicate that banks...

This technical note presents stress testing of banking and insurance on the Isle of Man (IOM). The stress tests for the IOM Financial Sector Assessment Program Update have been designed to yield as comprehensive and detailed a picture as possible within the constraints of the approach and...

This technical note focuses on the stress testing exercise in 2010 for the financial sector assessment program based on the existing approaches of the Central Bank of Russia, as well as a separate bottom-up exercise. The tests covered broad ranges of risk factors. The single factor tests...