Over the past decade policy makers in Latin America have adopted a number of macroprudential instruments to manage the procyclicality of bank credit dynamics to the private sector and contain systemic risk. Reserve requirements, in particular, have been actively employed. Despite their...

From the 2002 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a number of structural reforms have been carried out in the financial system. A number of measures have been taken in the regulatory, fiscal, and legal areas to improve credit quality and financial transparency. The stress test confirms...

The impact of the financial crisis on Sweden’s economy and financial sector is analyzed in this study. From the financial stability analysis, banks are resilient to credit risk and could face difficulties with respect to liquidity risk. The frameworks of international reserve management...

This report focuses on the effectiveness of the Japanese Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) and the Bank of Japan in supervising and regulating the Japanese financial system during the March 2011 earthquake. The report also highlights Japan’s compliance with the Basel Core Principles...

Various indicators place Cyprus’s banking system soundness ahead of emerging countries but behind advanced economies. This report discusses financial sector stability in Cyprus, using a combination of accounting-based and market-based indicators, and stress tests. Cypriot commercial banks...

Drawing from a unique data set comprising 2,893 banks and 152 countries over the period 1987 to 2000, we test whether the adoption of the Basel Accord by Latin American and Caribbean countries was responsible for the serious slowdowns in credit growth experienced by these countries. We find...

This paper takes stock of the current state of development of the financial systems in five Central European transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia) that are also leading EU accession candidates. It presents both a progress report and an...

The program of budget restraint and reduction of the quasi-fiscal losses, supported by the IMF's Stand-By Arrangement, was successful in bringing domestic demand down to sustainable levels, lowering inflation, and narrowing the current account deficit. The stabilization effort was supported by...

The typical portrait of monetary policy has the banks and the money supply being manipulated through changes in bank reserves. However, with only a small portion of bank deposits now subject to reserve requirements, an alternative explanation of how monetary policy influences banks is needed....

The relationship between the observance of financial system standards and financial stability is complex owing to the multitude of macroeconomic and structural factors affecting stability. Therefore, assessments of standards in terms of technical criteria for compliance needs to be reinforced...