Rising international bank financing to developing countries has fueled a debate on the behavior of these claims. The authors analyze claims from seven home (lender) countries on ten host (borrower) countries in Latin America. They find that banks transmit shocks from their home countries and...

Superficially, commodity-indexed bonds resemble a combination of a debt and a contract in futures. They are particularly useful in a country dependent on a single commodity for which prices are volatile. These financial instruments involve a tradeoff between gains in risk-sharing and a...

Despite recently announced delays, Basel II - the new standard for bank capital - is due to be completed this year for implementation in the 13 Basel Committee member countries by the end of 2006. Should the other 170 plus member countries of the World Bank also adopt Basel II? Basel II was not...

The authors propose an integrated approach to minimum bank capital, and loan loss reserves regulation. They break new ground in two main areas. First, the authors provide an explicit measurement of the credit loss distribution for a sample of emerging countries, providing a benchmark for...

The authors analyze how data in public credit registries can be used both to strengthen bank supervision and to improve the quality of credit analysis by financial institutions. Empirical tests using public credit registry (PCR) data were performed in collaboration with the central banks in...

The Basel 1988 Capital Accord is arguably the most successful of all recent financial"standards."Although it was designed for internationally active banks in G10 countries, more than 100 countries claim to adhere to it, and many apply the Accord to all banks. Significant changes to this Accord...

This paper uses World Bank survey data, including about 10,000 households in five countries -- Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda -- to investigate the link between international remittances and households'financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that receiving...

Using firm-level surveys for up to 73 countries, this paper explores the impact of introducing collateral registries for movable assets on firms'access to bank finance. It compares firms'access to bank finance in seven countries that introduced collateral registries for movable assets against...

This paper analyzes the lending behavior of foreign-owned banks during the recent global crisis. Using bank-level panel data for countries in Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Latin America, the paper explores the role of affiliate and parent financial characteristics, host location, as...

This paper provides the first comprehensive documentation of how firms use domestic and international corporate bond markets. Debt issues in domestic and international markets have different characteristics, not explained by differences across firms or countries. International issues tend to be...