This detailed assessment of the observance of standards and codes in the financial sector of the Kingdom of the Netherlands—Netherlands Antilles reviews implementation of the Basel Core Principles for effective banking. Legal provisions are in place entrusting the Bank of the Netherlands...

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 technical note presents an update to the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) on Switzerland. It reveals that current domestic macroeconomic and financial sector conditions are favorable, and the main downside risks to the financial sector are external. Stress tests confirm the...

This paper discusses key findings of the Detailed Assessment of Observance of the Basel Core Principles for Denmark. The assessment reveals that the basic legal framework is contained in the Financial Business Act (FBA), and in executive orders and explanatory guidelines issued pursuant to the...

The key findings of the United States’s Basel II Implementation Preparedness are discussed. Certain policy choices that the authorities have made or may make related to allowing banks to choose the capital regime that applies to them may open up arbitrage possibilities that the...

This paper discusses key findings of the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) on Moldova. The assessment reveals that vulnerabilities of the financial sector appear to be manageable. Stress tests on likely scenarios do not indicate major vulnerabilities for the banking system as a whole....

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...