A survey of the financial systems of Caribbean countries reveals systems dominated by banks, with services widely available. Jamaica is the only country to have experienced a financial crisis. The paper describes recent improvements in the regulatory framework, and examines factors, which affect...

This Spillover Report analyses the potential channels of financial system spillovers in Japan that policymakers should keep in mind. The report also highlights some of the potential challenges faced by Japanese financial institutions in managing risks developed owing to overseas exposure. The...

This report provides an assessment of the British Virgin Islands’s (BVI) compliance with the Basel Core Principle for effective banking supervision. The BVI has the preconditions for effective banking supervision. It has specific legislation governing international cooperation and mutual...

In contrast to corporate defaults, regulators typically take a number of statutory actions to avoid the large fiscal costs associated with bank defaults. The distance-to-default, a widely used market-based measure of corporate default risk, ignores such regulatory actions. To overcome this...

This Selected Issues paper underlies the financial sector developments in Niger. The paper presents an overview of the financial sector of Niger and discusses the recent banking developments. It analyzes the recent trends in key microfinance indicators, and investigates reasons behind...

This paper discusses details of Cameroon’ Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA). The FSSA is based on the work of a joint IMF-World Bank mission that visited Cameroon as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program in June 2007. Excess liquidity may be inducing banks to narrow...

This Financial Sector Stability Assessment on Nigeria discusses the macroeconomic performance and structure of the financial system. Although Nigerian economy experienced both domestic and external shocks in recent years, the economy continued to grow rapidly, achieving more than 7 percent...

The assessment of the implementation of the Basel Core Principles (BCP) was conducted for effective banking supervision in Nigeria. The assessment team reviewed the legal framework for banking supervision and held extensive discussions with the staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the...

The global financial crisis provided Nigerian banks with opportunities to expand within Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigerian banks have active cross-border liquidity flows, which may complicate the operation of monetary policy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should enhance further its work in...

This paper discusses key findings of the detailed assessment of observance of financial sector standards and codes in Switzerland. Switzerland has a relatively unique banking sector, with a high market concentration by the two largest domestic banks. The overall assessment of the peer-review...