Over the past decade, financial consumer protection has become an increasingly mainstream priority for policymakers. A strong consumer protection regime is key to ensuring that expanded access to financial services benefits consumers, enabling them to make well-informed decisions on how best to...

Croatia, a founding member of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and a current member of the European Union (EU), is a high-income country in Europe and Central Asia. Given that high quality financial reporting promotes good corporate governance, reduces uncertainty and risk, can help to lower...

This paper is intended to capture the main lessons learned from conducting Open Data Readiness Assessments and assisting countries with their implementation. Where appropriate examples have been cited, sometimes by name of the country involved where the lesson learned was positive

Financial consumer protection sets clear rules of conduct for financial firms regarding their retail customers. It aims to ensure that consumers: 1) receive information to allow them to make informed decisions, 2) are not subject to unfair or deceptive practices, and 3) have access to recourse...

The Mongolian economy has grown very rapidly following the discovery of significant mineral deposits. Large investments in the mining sector have led to increased capital inflows, resulting in cheap external funding for banks and rapid credit expansion. Loans to households increased at the...

Over the last decade, consumer credit in the Russian Federation has expanded from almost nothing to 9.2 percent of GDP in 2008, at 84 percent average annual growth in 2003-2008 year for five years. Yet, the increases have been uneven throughout the Russian population: more than 40 percent are...

Eight years of strong economic growth in Ukraine in 2000-2008, at an average of seven percent per year, ended with a sharp 15 percent decline in 2009. The national currency plummeted and the banking sector nearly collapsed, with non-performing loans increasing from 2.3 percent to 11.2 percent of...

Eight years of strong economic growth in Ukraine in 2000-2008, at an average of seven percent per year, ended with a sharp 15 percent decline in 2009. The national currency plummeted and the banking sector nearly collapsed, with non-performing loans increasing from 2.3 percent to 11.2 percent of...

In 2010, over 92 percent of the assets in the Nicaraguan financial system were concentrated in the banking sector, while microfinance managed over 5 percent, and all the remaining segments covered less than 3 percent. Starting in the late 1990s and until 2007, the microfinance sector in...

Although the Parliament of Rwanda has passed an impressive array of financial sector laws since 2008, the laws relevant to financial consumer protection are very limited and in some cases overlapping. Consumer protection in Rwandan banking, microfinance, and insurance sectors is fragmented...