This paper examines the trends in Philippine banking regulation in the past 25 years. In particular, it notes that the Philippines has followed a policy of despecialization in the banking sector by widening the range of permissible activities and products of banks to enhance competition and...

This paper studies whether the policies that, over the past decades, liberalized bankingsystems around the world have resulted in deeper credit markets. To measure banking sectorreforms we use a new index that tracks policy changes in five separate areas for 91 countriesover 1973-2005. We find...

This paper assesses proposals to redefine the scope of activities of systemically important financial institutions. Alongside reform of prudential regulation and oversight, these have been offered as solutions to the too-important-to-fail problem. It is argued that while the more radical of...

Over the past seventy years, the proposal to narrow the scope of banks has occurred more and more frequently in financial debates and research. Narrow banking would prevent deposit-issuing banks from lending to the private sector and restrict nonbank intermediaries from funding investments with...

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...

A survey of the financial systems of Caribbean countries reveals systems dominated by banks, with services widely available. Jamaica is the only country to have experienced a financial crisis. The paper describes recent improvements in the regulatory framework, and examines factors, which affect...

This paper focuses on bank rescue packages and on the behaviour of troubled banks in light of rescue offers. A puzzling feature of experience with banking crises is that in many cases policy authorities make offers of bank rescue, and banks are reluctant to accept these offers. We study...

This paper discusses the experience of the European Union, the steps taken to liberalize the financial sector, the specific features of its liberalization programme, the results achieved so far from these reforms and an assessment of potential lessons for other regional trading...

This paper looks at the issue of reforming financial regulatory structures from the New Institutional Economics perspective. In particular, it examines how the broader institutional environment prevailing in developing countries like the Philippines may affect the institutional arrangements for...