This report reviews recent as well as planned changes to accounting and solvency regulations affecting insurers and pension funds and how they may impact long-term investing by these institutions. The review of existing evidence focuses mainly on the impact of risk-based solvency requirements,...

OECD governments have long assigned a high priority to improving conditions for access to finance for new, innovative and fast-growing SMEs and established firms pursuing expansion. This report analyses the potential and challenges of mezzanine finance for addressing diverse financing needs of...

The present report is a case study on crowdfunding as a finance instrument for SMEs and entrepreneurs. The report aims to examine the characteristics, diffusion and uptake by new firms and existing SMEs, assessing its effectiveness in supporting innovative or potentially high-growth firms to...

The 2008-09 global financial crisis had a profound impact on the availability of bank credit for SMEs. Although a decline in the demand for bank credit played an important role, banks have also become more reluctant to lend, including as a consequence of new capital requirements. Moreover, a...

Over the last two and a half decades, Luxembourg’s financial sector emerged as a leading international hub for asset management and investment funds and became a key contributor to growth. Diversification into new areas of financial asset management is continuing. However, changing financial...

Australian and Canadian pension funds have been pioneers in infrastructure investing since the early 1990s. They also have the highest asset allocation to infrastructure around the globe today. This paper compares and contrasts the experience of institutional investors in the two countries...

Loan creation has not recovered after the crisis owing to a combination of demand and supply factors. Although the banking sector is sufficiently capitalised in the short term, banks are deleveraging by cutting down their dependence on cross-border financing. The ability of the financial sector...

The economic downturn is likely to have a lasting impact on the fund management industry and on long term asset allocation strategies of institutional investors. On one hand, in promoting more cautious investment strategies and a greater focus on portfolio risk management in the coming years. On...

This report is structured in three chapters. The first chapter examines the channels through which institutional investors can access green infrastructure, assesses the extent to which this is currently happening, and identifies the barriers to scaling up these investment flows. The second...

China is well-placed to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap” and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon. However, in order to...