The paper shows that commercial banks’ ability to lower deposit interest rates (market power) can increase deposit mobilization. Interest expenses saved can subsidize and lower fees on checking and branching services and thus help attract deposits. United States data illustrates the financial...

An international cooperative effort has been focused on the need to reduce financial fragility and systemic risks in global financial markets. Work is proceeding in three different areas: enhancing financial market transparency, improving the international financial architecture, and...

This paper provides an overview of indicators that can be used to illustrate and analyze liquidity developments in financial markets. The measures include bid-ask spreads, turnover ratios, and price impact measures. They gauge different aspects of market liquidity, namely tightness (costs),...

There may be a compelling discontinuity to financial sector development in that banks need to be supported early in development but need to be "weakened" later, at the expense of bank rents, to foster further development. The important question for policy is when and how to generate and manage...