In the United States and Europe faulty credit ratings and flawed rating processes are widely perceived as being among the key contributors to the global financial crisis. That has brought them under intense scrutiny and led to proposals for radical reforms. The ongoing debate, while centered in...

The immediate financial sector policy responses to the financial crisis, including emergency liquidity support, expansion of financial safety nets, and interventions in financial institutions, have succeeded in stemming widespread panic. But the effort has generally been insufficient and ad hoc....

The financial crisis has prompted a shift toward a tighter and more macro-prudential approach to financial regulation. But the reform agenda still needs to address the role of supervisory (rather than regulatory) failures, while the institutional arrangements needed to implement the new...

Global trends taken for granted in recent decades, the big expansion in global financial assets compared with underlying economic activity, growing global financial integration, shrinking role of the state in financial systems, and rising share of cross-border ownership of financial...