This study discusses issues of access to bank credit in Sub-Saharan Africa, and examines measures that could help facilitate access by the private sector to bank credit. It reviews in particular obstacles to credit small- and medium-scale enterprises and agriculture, and examines progress in the...

This paper analyzes the relationship between selected macroeconomic and financial soundness indicators (FSIs) using a newly assembled panel dataset of FSIs for 96 countries covering the period 1998-2005. The analysis covers key macroeconomic indicators and FSIs of capital adequacy, asset quality...

This paper reviews the nature of central bank involvement in 26 episodes of financial disturbance and crises in Latin America from the mid-1990s onwards. It finds that, except in a handful of cases, large amounts of central bank money were used to cope with large and small crises alike. Pouring...

The large and growing international linkages of big Irish banks expose them to idiosyncratic shocks arising in other countries. We analyze international interdependencies of Irish banks-during both normal times and in periods of large shocks or extreme events-using an existing methodology with...

This paper analyzes the evolution of bank funding structures in the run up to the global financial crisis and studies the implications for financial stability, exploiting a bank-level dataset that covers about 11,000 banks in the U.S. and Europe during 2001?09. The results show that banks with...

This paper assesses the interconnectedness across Korean banks using three alternative methodologies. Two methodologies utilize high frequency financial data while the third uses bank balance sheet data to assess banks' bilateral exposures, systemically vulnerable banks, and systemically risky...

In general, the reasons for bank failures today are the same as failures in the past.

The global financial crisis has renewed policymakers' interest in improving the policy framework for financial stability, and an open question is to what extent and in what form should financial stability reports be part of it. We examine the recent experience with central banks' financial...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for Bank Recovery and Resolution Funds (BRRFs) in the context of the present European Union's (EU) decentralized safety net. Design/methodology/approach – The paper makes some reflections on the governance aspects of BRRFs that...