It is generally believed that firms in emerging markets rely on shorter-term instruments than firms in advanced economies. In recent years, firms in emerging market economies have substantially increased the amount of debt raised in global bond and syndicated loan markets, triggering concerns...

The period since the global financial crisis of 2008 has been characterized by the emergence of a broad set of tech-driven financial companies ( "fintech" companies), acting in parallel with traditional banking services. Although the new players are ramping up competition, pushing digital...

Do development banks have a useful role to play in providing finance or are they a potential waste of government resources? A new view in this brief sheds some light on this question and argues that, under certain circumstances, development banks can add value and play an important role in...

As public and private financial institutions innovate to expand the range of financial products that households and firms use, questions about the additionality of different services have become central. Additional financial services are those that are not already provided by the private sector...

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed a heavy toll on economies worldwide, nearly halting economic activity. Although most firms should be viable when economic activity resumes, cash flows have collapsed, possibly triggering inefficient bankruptcies with long-term detrimental effects....

Big data is transforming financial services around the world. Advances in data analytics and computational power are allowing firms to exploit data in an easier, faster, and more reliable manner, and at a larger scale. By using big data, financial firms and new entrants from other sectors are...

Investing through online automated platforms, known as robo-advisors, is increasingly popular. Robo-advisors expand access to wealth management services by making it easier and less costly to open investments accounts and receive financial advice, as well as plan and automate investment...

During the last two decades, economies in East Asia and Pacific have been integrating internationally through trade and financial investments. One trend is puzzling. Whereas most of the trade integration has been within the region, most of the financial integration has been with countries...

Public credit guarantees have become a popular instrument to try to expand lending to financially constrained firms. In many instances, these schemes have proven useful to increase access to finance. However, public interventions to extend guarantees need to be designed, evaluated, and monitored...

Although SMEs provide employment to a large share of the labor force in developed and developing countries, they receive limited external funding compared to large firms and face a financing gap. This problem is not specific to developing countries; SMEs in developed countries also suffer from a...