Although a great deal of attention has been paid to IMF conditionality and to the effects of IMF programmes, relatively little attention has been paid to their completion rate. However, the record is that the clear majority of Fund programmes are uncompleted. Is this a cause for concern and why...

This paper discusses how to realise the substantial economic benefits from digital facilitation of international trade. We distinguish digital facilitation from the wider concept of digital trade and note the quantitative large benefits of “going paperless”. We identify 64 distinct business...

This paper is an examination of adoption of distributed ledgers in financial services. We review more than one hundred initiatives and a large practitioner literature, considering fourteen areas of application and seven case studies, in order to provide both a conceptual analysis of these...

Modern data and information technologies are having a profound impact on financial services and opening new frontiers in regulation. This article explores the deployment of technology to embed regulatory objectives within the management and decision-making processes of financial firms....

Supply disruptions, most importantly the reduced supply of gas following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has triggered a major energy crisis across all of Europe. It appears clear that prices for gas and electricity will be elevated, remaining perhaps three times pre-crisis levels or higher for...

In this paper, we develop an analytically tractable dynamic model of optimal consumption and savings decisions with disastrous income risk. We first empirically explore the relations among consumption changes, aggregate income, disaster shock severity, and fiscal measures in 55 countries during...

In this paper, we develop an analytically tractable dynamic model of optimal consumption and savings decisions with disastrous income risk. We first empirically explore the relations among consumption changes, aggregate income, disaster shock severity, and fiscal measures in 55 countries during...

This paper analyses the challenges for financial regulation posed by new financial technologies. It provides a conceptual framework incorporating both new financial products and services and new institutional arrangements including decentralised finance without intermediaries. Four possible...

This paper – drawing on interviews with twenty-two senior payments professionals – documents the business processes employed in the execution of international payments and discusses how international payments might be improved through the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDC)....