Confidential examination files show that the likelihood of a bank to voluntarily choose to be externally audited under internal controls is positively associated with disciplinary actions imposed against it by supervisors and that such actions seldom involve financial reporting. This identifies...

Transparency requirements are central to the third pillar of the Basel prescriptions. The purpose of this article is to offer a simple theoretical model to analyze the impact of regulatory requirements for transparency on the balance sheet and profits of banks, focusing on the implementation of...

Recessions associated with banking crises are deeper and longer than other recessions. While banking crises are often believed to reflect defects in regulation and supervision, regulatory and supervisory frameworks may also determine the shape of subsequent recoveries. Combining new databases...

Several developing economies witnessed a large number of systemic financial and currency crises since the 1980s which resulted in severe economic, social, and political problems. The devastating impact of the 1982 and 1994-95 Mexican crises, the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Russian...

Developing Asia's financial depth as a whole compares favorably with other parts of the developing world, but there are wide variations across subregions and economies. This paper examines the key features and reform priorities of the financial systems in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Georgia, Mongolia,...

Sri Lanka has achieved a high level of financial inclusion compared to other South Asian countries. Its financial sector comprises a wide range of financial institutions providing financial services such as loans, savings, pawning, leasing and finance, and remittance and money transfer...

Microfinance has passed a long way from micro-saving to micro-credit and this journey has created an unforgettable history of developing not only the rural people but also the urban poor too especially women. Though the concept “Microfinance” refers to small financial activities like saving,...

This paper investigates the heterogeneous effects of finance on firm exports through the lens of differential exporting modes. China's WTO accession leads to an export deregulation, which empowers private domestic firms with low registered capital to export directly. This quasi-natural...

We investigate the impact of a large scale debt waiver program for small agricultural borrowers in India on the short term and long term consumption levels of the beneficiaries. We obtain consumption data from three national level surveys conducted before and after the waiver by a federal...