This simulation-based paper investigates the impact of different methods of dynamic provisioning on bank soundness and shows that this increasingly popular macroprudential tool can smooth provisioning costs over the credit cycle and lower banks’ probability of default. In addition, the...

This Financial System Stability Assessment on Kuwait reviews the macroeconomic environment and gives an overview of the financial system. Financial stability has been effectively supported by prudent fiscal and monetary policies. The banking sector appears sound and is well regulated and...

This paper reviews findings of the Detailed Assessment of Italy’s Compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. The Italian banking system seems to exhibit a high degree of resilience to possible macroeconomic shocks, as supported by the evolution of some...

This paper reviews key findings of the detailed assessment of the Observance of Standards and Codes in the Financial Sector of the Cayman Islands. Banks in the Cayman Islands operate within a well-defined prudential regulatory framework, generally in accordance with Basel standards, that is,...

The most important challenge faced by the Djibouti authorities is to achieve high rates of economic growth in order to create employment opportunities for a rapidly increasing labor force and to alleviate rising poverty. In this paper, developments and the role of the financial system during the...

This paper presents the primary institutions and economic policies that have led to Chile’s remarkable record of stability and growth over the past twenty years. The core of this policy stance is the combination of fiscal discipline and an open trade policy regime, together with carefully...

Despite far-reaching banking sector reforms and a prolonged period of macroeconomic stability and strong economic growth, financial intermediation in Armenia has lagged behind other transition countries, and interest rate spreads have remained higher than in most Central and Eastern European...

This paper provides an overview of the possible linkages between state-owned banks, privatization, and banking sector crises. Data on privatizations in over 65 countries is used together with data from the banking crisis literature to consider the relationship between state-owned banks and...

To test the role of bank lending in transmitting currency crisis we examine a panel of BIS data on bank flows to 30 emerging markets disaggregated by 11 banking centers. We find that bank exposures to a crisis country help predict bank flows in third countries after the Mexican and Asian crisis,...

This paper studies whether compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCPs) improves bank soundness. The authors find a significant and positive relationship between bank soundness (measured with Moody's financial strength ratings) and compliance with principles...