This engagement note provides a snapshot of financial development in the countries of the GulfCooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and identifies key areas of the financial sector reform agenda where the World Bank Group (WBG)...

Banking financial intermediation relative to the economy is low and declining. The depthof the Romanian banking sector is lagging both in terms of deposit and loan penetration. Cross-cutting factors such as poverty, rurality and informality form a set of constraints that still persist affecting...

"Asian financial systems, which serve the most economically dynamic region of the world, survived the global economic crisis of the last several years. In this book scholars argue in separate essays that Asian systems must strengthen their quality, diversity, and resilience to future shocks in...