A review of the experience of five developing countries in reforming their financial systems illustrates the benefits and risks, and provides lessons on the factors which contribute to successful financial sector reforms. Financial sector reforms need to be supported by active monetary policy,...

A healthy and dynamic financial sector is essential to achieving high and sustainable economic growth in the Maghreb region-Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. Financial integration within the Maghreb region will help deepen financial markets, increase their efficiency, and enhance...

In this paper, we develop multi-country indices of financial system stress and quality of financial policies and use them in regression analysis of the determinants of financial stress. We find that countries with higher quality of financial policies are better able to contain the effects of...

International policy efforts to strengthen financial systems have highlighted the role of liquidity. This paper explores a framework to assess arrangements for market liquidity and lays out elements of systemic liquidity policy. Robust arrangements for liquidity provide confidence to market...

Emerging European countries have made large strides in developing their local capital markets since the early-1990s. However, the rate of development has been widely disparate across countries and market segments, underpinned by the varying degrees of progress made in key areas such as...

This paper reviews the trade-offs involved in the choice of the ECB's monetary policy operational framework. As long as the ECB's supply of reserves remains well in excess of the banks' demand, the ECB will likely continue to employ a floor system for implementing the target interest rate in...

Intro -- Contents -- Executive Summary -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. LONG- TERM SYSTEMIC RISKS -- III. INNOVATIONS IN RISK TRANSFER MARKETS -- IV. INCOMPLETE MARKETS -- V. POLICY CONSIDERATIONS -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- References.

The Detailed Assessments of the Observance of Standards and Codes on France reviews compliance with Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision. The French insurance market is notable for its broad range of distribution channels, which include tied agents, insurance brokers, salaried...

The report focuses on the role played by financial market infrastructures (FMIs) in maintaining and promoting financial stability in Japan. FMIs are important tools that contribute to the Japanese financial sector, especially in the domain of domestic financial stability. The oversight and...

We consider the optimality of various institutional arrangements for agencies that conduct macro-prudential regulation and monetary policy. When a central bank is in charge of price and financial stability, a new time inconsistency problem may arise. Ex-ante, the central bank chooses the...