The objective of the reforms is to improve the capacity of financial institutions to serve the needs of economic agents and the population at large. In Cote d'Ivoire, downsizing, reorganization and (as required) privatization and liquidation of key banks and insurance companies, in the early...

The Bank of Lithuania (BoL), the Central Bank, was established in 1990. BoL has the exclusive right to grant and revoke licenses to local and foreign banks and to supervise their activities. Private commercial banking boomed from 1991 to 1994 while bank regulation was lax. In late 1995, a bank...

The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2012 is a pocket edition of the Global Financial Inclusion Index (Global Findex) database providing country-level indicators on the use of formal bank accounts, payments behavior, savings patterns, credit patterns, and insurance decisions. It provides...

"This paper examines the implications of bank activity and short-term funding strategies for bank risk and returns using an international sample of 1,334 banks in 101 countries leading up to the 2007 financial crisis. Expansion into non-interest income generating activities such as trading...

"This paper studies the factors banks perceive as drivers and obstacles to financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), focusing on the role of competition and the institutional framework. Using a survey of banks in Argentina and Chile, the paper shows that, despite alleged differences in the...

"The authors (1) present new indicators of banking sector penetration across 99 countries based on a survey of bank regulatory authorities, (2) show that these indicators predict household and firm use of banking services, (3) explore the association between the outreach indicators and measures...

The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2015 is a pocket edition of the Global Financial Inclusion Database published in 2015 in "The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World?" by Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, and Peter Van Oudheusden...