This paper provides the first empirical analysis of the cross-country relationship between a direct measure of competitive conduct of financial institutions and banking system fragility. Using the Panzar and Rosse H-Statistic as a measure for competition in 38 countries during 1980-2003, we...

The global financial crisis has highlighted the importance of early identification of weak banks: when problems are identified late, solutions are much more costly. Until recently, Europe has seen only a small number of outright bank failures, which made the estimation of early warning models...

This paper discusses the findings of the assessments on Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision in India. The Reserve Bank of India is to be commended for its tightly controlled regulatory and supervisory regime, consisting of higher than minimum capital requirements; frequent,...

The Banks and trust Companies Act, Financial Services Commission Act, and the Regulatory Act are considered for banking supervision. The assessment is also based on a self-assessment prepared by the Financial Services Commission (FSC). British Virgin Islands (BVI) law provides three classes of...

The Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) employs a well-developed risk-focused regulatory and supervisory regime. Despite this, a clear gap exists in the application of the supervision and regulation regime to financial holding companies. BNM is to be commended for its thoughtful and comprehensive...

The Irish financial sector has continued to perform well since its participation in the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) in 2000. Although the outlook remains very strong for 2006–07, there are some macroeconomic risks that could have implications for the financial system asset...

This paper presents an update to the Financial System Stability Assessment on Sri Lanka. The paper discusses that despite a challenging macroeconomic environment characterized by a high fiscal deficit, inflationary pressures, and a widening current account, near-term risks to the financial...

This Technical Note presents a targeted review and a follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations of the 2002 assessment of Lithuania’s compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. It was found that banking supervision arrangements in Lithuania...

Even though the Russian authorities have maintained financial stability at the time of a major global shock, the financial system is still weak. The crisis has set back progress toward a strong, competitive banking system for the future. The recent unification of the supervision of nonbank...

The global financial crisis hit the Netherlands' financial sector hard. This note analyzes the Dutch framework for crisis management and bank resolution, and formulates recommendations to address observed weaknesses. The overall framework for official financial support to stem systemic crisis is...