An update on Saudi Arabia’s Financial System Stability Assessment (FSAP) is presented. Saudi Arabia has confronted the global financial crisis from a position of strength, and took decisive steps to manage the impact of the crisis. As a result, the financial system has weathered the crisis...

Over the last few decades, the economy of Saudi Arabia has strengthened, as oil prices increased with the rebound in global economic activity. Despite this, vulnerabilities to a sustained decline in the oil price have increased. Executive Directors have commended the authorities for their...

State-owned financial institutions fall into three main groups: commercial banks, hybrid banks, and development institutions. The larger state-owned commercial banks/ groups include Sberbank, the VTB Bank group, and Gazprombank. Like private commercial banks, these institutions do not have a...

Multilateral Consultations are a new tool of multilateral surveillance for the IMF, designed to foster action-oriented debate and policy actions on a problem of systemic or regional importance. The first multilateral consultation focused on facilitating the resolution of global imbalances while...

Saudi Arabia’s Report on Standards and Codes has been examined. The Capital Market Authority (CMA) has made significant progress in establishing its supervision credentials, including issuing implementing regulations. The CMA approach to supervision is both risk-based and compliance-focused,...

Rapid advances in financial technology are transforming the economic and financial landscape, offering wide-ranging opportunities while raising potential risks. Fintech can support potential growth and poverty reduction by strengthening financial development, inclusion, and efficiency-but it may...

This Selected Issues paper for San Marino reviews developments in the financial sector and provides an update of the financial sector regulation and supervision. While Sammarinese financial institutions accept foreign deposits and managed funds to a much larger extent than comparators in...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that in 2001, overall real growth for Kuwait fell slightly as oil output dropped following OPEC-mandated production cuts. The real non-oil GDP growth decelerated to 0.5 percent from 1 percent in 2000 as the private sector investment remained broadly...

This paper examines the emergence of financial stability as a key policy objective. It discusses the underlying trends in the financial system, as well as the role of finance in relation to money, the real economy, and public policy. Financial stability is defined in terms of its ability to help...