This paper assesses the observance of financial sector supervisory standards of Montserrat in the context of a Module 2 offshore financial center assessment. It reviews the extent to which the regulatory and supervisory arrangements for the offshore financial sector complied with internationally...

This paper reviews findings of the Detailed Assessment of Italy’s Compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. The Italian banking system seems to exhibit a high degree of resilience to possible macroeconomic shocks, as supported by the evolution of some...

This paper focuses on key findings of the detailed assessment of observance of standards and codes in the financial sector of the Cook Islands (CI). The new legal framework in CI represents an important first step in correcting deficiencies, as they are all addressed in the new set of laws. The...

The paper's central theme is that where a financial crisis emerges, regional supervisors should have systems in place to effectively respond to their country-specific crises and-in the case of foreign operations and financial conglomerates-to collaborate comprehensively with other supervisory...

The widespread expectation, forcefully posed by Reinhart and Rogoff (2009), that growth in the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized world will be subpar for a prolonged period following the financial crisis, raises issues for the measurement of the financial sector’s activity. According to...

The concept of financial activity is often identified with the concept of financing. Financial activities as the object of accounting (activities that lead to changes in the size and composition of equity and debt capitals) are influenced by environmental factors that the enterprise cannot...

The cross-country empirical literature on the finance-growth relationship has debated three propositions: (i) financial deepening has a strong impact on the growth process; (ii) measures of financial “activity†rather than the “size†of the sector plays a more significant...

The finance-growth nexus is discussed, and a framework for empirical analysis is formulated. Based on data for 93 countries from 1960-1990, a growth equation is estimated. It includes the standard regressors as well as a new proxy for financial activity and interaction effects of the latter with...

This paper discusses key findings of the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) on Thailand. The assessment reveals that the soundness of Thailand’s financial system has been strengthened since the financial crisis of the late 1990s. Substantial progress has been made in upgrading...

This Technical Note reviews the International Organization of Securities Commissions’s (IOSCO) Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation for Monaco. It reveals that overall, there has been progress in implementing the Offshore Financial Center assessment recommendations in most areas...