Fintech is increasingly recognized as a key enabler for financial sectors worldwide, enabling more efficient and competitive financial markets while expanding access to finance for traditionally underserved consumers. A critical challenge for policy makers is to harness the benefits and...

This note examines the implications of digital innovation for market structure and attendant policies, including financial and competition regulation. There have been several surveys of regulatory responses. This note takes a step back, to look at what the economic theory of banking and...

Physical cash and commercial bank money are dominant vehicles for retail payments around the world, including in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Yet payments in EMDEs are marked by several key deficiencies, such as lack of universal access to transaction accounts, widespread...

The Thailand Economic Monitor (TEM) consists of two parts. Part 1 of the TEM reviews recent economic developments, examines the country's macroeconomic outlook, and analyzes the impact of key policy changes. Part 2 focuses on a specific subject with critical implications for Thailand's long-term...

This report is a stock-take of the state of prudential regulation and supervision of fintech. It focuses on prudential questions related to three primary products-transaction accounts (deposits and e-money accounts), credit, and payments. As such, the report covers e-money providers, P2P...

This paper provides an overview of different regulatory approaches to Fintech and provides guidance for policymakers to understand the benefits and limitations of each. While some Fintech activities can often be covered within existing regulatory frameworks, the majority of jurisdictions are...

Islamic finance is a fast-booming segment of global finance. Serving a core population of 1.8 billion Muslims world-wide and a wider global ethical finance audience, its role is growing in global significance especially as it relates to global social financing needs. The global fintech...

Plastics have been a development driver for decades but have turned into a development problem due to their omnipresence in the environment. Marine litter and plastic pollution have attracted much attention and commitments from governments and the private sector alike in the past few years....

This study aims to explore ways in which key competencies of the oil and gas industry could be leveraged to support the diversification of the Chadian economy. The analysis focused on identifying opportunities and prioritizing core competencies in specific segments of the oil and gas value chain...

Rice is an important agricultural product and food staple in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), especially for its three low-income members - Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. These countries are net exporters of rice, similar to their more advanced neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam, but their rice...