The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

This study examines the relative importance of political and economic variables in the determination of a country’s standing in credit ratings provided by commercial rating agencies. It finds that creditworthiness appears to be determined primarily by economic variables. While including...

This paper examines the implications of the Fund accepting membership in the Financial Stability Board ('FSB'). The FSB Charter (the ?Charter?) explicitly contemplates the possibility of the Fund and the other international financial institutions becoming members but notes that ?the acceptance...

In light of the recent establishment of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) as an association under Swiss law, this paper proposes Fund membership in the new association. The FSB was formed in 2009 and the Fund's Executive Board approved the Fund's membership in 2010, which has provided the Fund...

Financial Soundness Indicators (FSIs) are measures that indicate the current financial health and soundness of a country's financial institutions, and their corporate and household counterparts. FSIs include both aggregated individual institution data and indicators that are representative of...

The papers published in this volume are based on an IMF seminar held in 1988 covering a broad range of topics dealing with monetary and financial law. Topics presented at the seminar focused on the liberalization of capital movements, data dissemination, the IMF's goals in financial surveillance...

IMF economists work closely with member countries on a variety of issues. Their unique perspective on country experiences and best practices on global macroeconomic issues are often shared in the form of books on diverse topics such as cross-country comparisons, capacity building, macroeconomic...

Financial sector liberalization can spur economic growth and development, but reforms to liberalize the financial sector can also entail risks if they are not properly designed and implemented. One of the central questions for countries reforming their financial systems is how to sequence the...