"This paper presents new data from 150 countries showing that former cabinet members, central bank governors, and financial regulators are many orders of magnitude more likely than other citizens to become board members of banks. Countries where the politician-banker phenomenon is more prevalent...

"Over the past decade, the Brazilian banking industry has undergone major and deep transformations with several privatizations of state-owned banks, mergers and acquisitions, closing down of troubled banks, entry by foreign banks, and so on. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts...

"Caprio and Honohan question the widespread belief that market discipline on banks cannot be effective in less developed financial environments. There is no systematic tendency for low-income countries to lack the prerequisites for market discipline. Offsetting factors to the weaker market and...

In 2007-08 Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), the central bank of Afghanistan, was in the process of reforming the financial sector. While some considerable advances have been made with respect to basic legislation, some central banking reform, the introduction of new currency, and the beginnings of a...

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...

This report is a comprehensive review of the Nigerian financial system, covering the following areas: i) macro-financial environment; ii) safety and soundness of the banking system; iii) banking supervision; iv) development finance institutions; v) community banks and commercial banks' rural...

This book examines progress within Russia's financial sector and provides a road map for promoting dialogue on and implementing improvements. The book is intended to complement and support the joint strategic plan of Russia's government and Central Bank for banking reform, a plan that includes...