This technical note explores the reasons for a comparatively high interest rate spread in Kazakhstan in the context of competition in the banking sector. In spite of significant gains in efficiency made in recent years, operational costs and provisioning for loan losses remain high compared with...

This Selected Issues paper presents a short history of the development of the financial sector of Luxembourg, highlighting the strong influence of tax and regulatory advantages for its past development. It describes the structure of the banking sector today and summarizes plans for harmonizing...

Many Latin American economies have experienced significant reductions in growth recently, as a result of the end of the commodity super-cycle and the rebalancing of China's growth, and a number of global banks have been leaving the region. AlthoughLatin American countries were generally less...

This report presents the analysis, findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation of the Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center (PFTAC) that was undertaken between April 26 and May 14, 2004

New and revised international standards for safe and efficient Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) were published in April 2012. The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) reviewed the existing sets of standards...

The report focuses on the role played by financial market infrastructures (FMIs) in maintaining and promoting financial stability in Japan. FMIs are important tools that contribute to the Japanese financial sector, especially in the domain of domestic financial stability. The oversight and...

The paper describes the evolution of the corporate stock and bond markets in Korea and the Government’s role in this evolution and its policy with regard to internationalization of the capital market. The paper analyzes problems encountered in gradually opening the Korean capital market to...

This paper examines whether financial deregulation in the 1980s has reduced the importance of liquidity constraints in consumption patterns. Data for six industrialized countries are used to estimate a simple model incorporating liquidity constraints and forward looking behavior. It is concluded...