This paper examines Colombia’s 2002 Article IV Consultation and Request for Stand-By Arrangement. The economic situation worsened in the first half of 2002. Economic activity has remained sluggish, and the fiscal consolidation has gone off-track. Exacerbated by increased contagion from...

This paper presents findings of Financial System Stability Assessment for the Netherlands, including Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes on Banking Supervision, Securities Regulation, Insurance Regulation, and Corporate Governance. Overall, the financial system is sound, resilient...

The detailed assessments of the Offshore Financial Center Assessment of Monaco reviews the assessments of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) related principles of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Bank Supervision, of the AML/CFT regime based on...

This 2003 Article IV Consultation highlights that following a solid expansion in 1997–2000, economic growth in Switzerland is currently stalled as exports have been hurt by the global slowdown and domestic investment has undergone a sharp downward correction from earlier high levels. The...

This paper focuses on the nexus between pension funds' balance sheet liabilities, reflecting their age profile and payments obligations, and the investment behavior and costs of these funds. The context of the analysis is the stringent regulatory framework and the highly fragmented and...

We re-examine the extent to which personal taxes on dividends are capitalized into the equity prices of domestic firms, using data from around the time of the 1997 U.K. dividend tax reform, which removed a significant tax credit for an important group of investors: U.K. pension funds. The...

This paper was prepared for the World Bank 4th Annual Contractual Savings Conference (Washington DC, April 2008) co-organized by Gregorio Impavido (gimpavido@imf.org). The article shows that account transfers among pension administrators in Mexico barely respond to price or return considerations...

Over the last decade, the external environment of insurance sector had significantly changed, becoming very instable and complex. In these circumstances, we believe that the proper managerial approach, not only for anticipating the future problems, opportunities and threats but also to improve...

This technical note highlights Austria’s analysis of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors Insurance Core Principles. The Austrian economy generally performed well over the past several years, with growth above the euro-area average, falling unemployment, and low...

This paper examines the Insurance Regulation and Supervision for Cyprus’s Financial Sector Assessment Program. The domestic nonlife market is dominated by motor insurance which accounted for 58 percent of net premiums. All Cypriot business is reinsured with nondomiciled reinsurers. Health...