Over the years, the demand for seamless and inexpensive cross-border payments has grown in parallel with growth in international e-commerce, remittances and tourism. Yet, cross-border payments have not kept pace with the intensive modernization that has characterized domestic payment services...

The exposure of African financial sectors to global risks, including the likely fall-out of the on-going European debt crisis, continues to be limited. African financial sectors have received much recognition for their steady growth performance and resilience during and after the 2008 global...

Global survey outcomes presented in this publication are divided into two main sections: Chapters I through VIII analyze the survey results and identify trends using various variable for cross-country comparisons. In addition to worldwide totals, three broad country characteristics exogenous to...

This Annual Report, which covers the period from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) in accordance with the respective bylaws of...

The World Bank group, among the world's largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in...

In recent years, due to innovations in technology, the concept of digital currency has emerged out of the desire of some private entities to replicate specific properties of cash in the digital space. Digital currencies have been issued in various electronic formats and value propositions, and...

Payment and settlement systems and services have become vital components of the economic life of contemporary societies. Over the last decades, they have gone through several waves of reforms that have changed the landscape of the national payments system (NPS) in virtually every country in the...

This note examines the observance by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) of the good practices on transparency in monetary policy. The transparency analysis was based on a review of relevant laws and regulations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF s) code of good practices...