Australia has a history of few bank failures, even fewer financial crises, and its banking sector emerged from the global financial crisis relatively well.1 With an eye toward international developments, the Australian authorities have taken commendable steps to strengthen the financial safety...

This Detailed Assessment of the Observance of International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Insurance Core Principles for Portugal highlights the market analysis of the insurance market. Investment in domestic government bonds has decreased and is outweighed by nondomestic government...

This paper presents a technical note on Mexico’s Financial Sector Assessment Program update. The Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal has successfully led a range of direct policy measures that have stimulated the development of the housing finance market. The government improved the legal...

This Technical Note provides an update on the Austrian insurance industry and an analysis of its regulatory and supervisory regime. The structure of the domestic insurance sector has remained largely stable since the last update. At Q3-2012 there were 50 insurance companies with assets of...

Guernsey’s status as the largest international insurance center in Europe hinges on its progressive infrastructure and operational flexibility. Guernsey updates its regulatory regime continually and has implemented all the recommendations arising from the 2003 Offshore Financial Center...

This paper presents a detailed assessment of the observance of the Insurance Core Principles (ICP) of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) in Spain. The IMF, for their assessment, consulted the review of a self-assessment prepared by the General Directorate of Insurance...

The key findings of Australia’s BASEL II implementation assessment are presented. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) allocated sufficient resources, including highly skilled staff, prior to the Basel II start date, and the outcome has been a robust and high-quality...

This paper assesses observance of standards and codes on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations for antimoney laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) for Armenia. The assessment reveals that Armenia has made considerable improvements in its AML/CFT framework...

This article is an overview of the structure of the Bahamian financial system. After the financial crisis in the United States, the Bahamian financial structure showed fragile growth. Tourism, the main source of income for the domestic economy, weakened owing to the U.S. crisis. The increase in...

This technical note focuses on selected issues on the credit union (CU) sector in the Czech Republic. The business models of CUs in the Czech Republic are fundamentally different from traditional CUs that are typically non-for-profit cooperatives operated for the benefit of a defined set of...