The financial impact of the global crisis on Latin America has in some respects been less severe than in previous crises. This reflects in part the development of domestic bond markets and improved net balance sheet positions of the economies, which have allowed gross capital inflow reversals to...

We examine in a unified framework three recent perspectives on country risk=debt intolerance, original sin, and currency mismatches. We find statistical evidence supporting aspects of all three, though the strength of that support varies considerably across hypotheses and a number of open...

The turmoil in global interbank markets in the second half of 2007 raises questions about the robustness of interbank rate fixings. A comparison of alternative fixings for similar interest rates confirms that they diverged to an unusual extent. Nevertheless, the design of fixing mechanisms...

Global liquidity has become a key focus of international policy debates over recent years. The concept of global liquidity, however continues to be used in a variety of ways and this ambiguity can lead to potentially undesirable policy responses. This feature attempts to further the...

Cross-border bank lending dropped sharply during the financial crisis. This feature uses a panel regression framework to analyse the key drivers of cross-border bank lending to 21 emerging market economies between 1995 and 2009. The analysis suggests that both demand and supply factors...

This article outlines a broad framework for assessing system-wide funding risks and analysing banks' role in the transmission of shocks across countries. It highlights the need to complement essential data on banks' consolidated balance sheets with information that provides a geographically...

This article examines developments in the syndicated loan markets during the financial crisis. The investigation of deal structures and purposes suggests that supply constraints aggravated the sharp decline of syndicated lending. An econometric analysis confirms that balance sheet constraints of...

The way in which official reserves are managed is changing. Data compiled by the BIS on deposits placed by monetary authorities with commercial banks confirm that reserve managers approach diversification cautiously. Nevertheless, they have steadily shifted into higher-yielding, higher-risk...

We analyse the spillover of the turmoil in money markets in the second half of 2007 to FX swap and long-term cross-currency basis swap markets. We find that the use of swap markets to overcome US dollar funding shortages by non-US financial institutions resulted in marked deviations from covered...

Aggregate issuance of international bonds is found to be significantly higher in strong currencies than in weak ones. The mix of currencies is also found to be influenced by interest rate differentials, with greater issuance in higher-yielding currencies, and by the amount of home country...