Moving toward universal access to financial services is within reach, thanks to new technologies, transformative business models, and ambitious reforms. Instruments such as e-money accounts and mobile accounts, along with debit cards and low-cost traditional bank accounts, can significantly...

Physical cash and commercial bank money are dominant vehicles for retail payments around the world, including in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Yet payments in EMDEs are marked by several key deficiencies, such as lack of universal access to transaction accounts, widespread...

In recent years, emerging market economy (EME) central banks have increasingly engaged in projects related to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In a novel survey focusing on EME efforts, we find that the stage of their engagement – research, pilot or launch – varies according to...

Emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) have experienced an extraordinary decline in inflation since the early 1970s. After peaking in 1974 at 17.3 percent, inflation in these economies declined to 3.5 percent in 2017. Despite a checkered history of managing inflation among many EMDEs,...

This paper analyses the determinants of international bank lending to the largest countries in Asia and Latin America through a framework based on push/pull factors. Our results show that both types of factors determine international bank lending. However, they differ from those of the early...