The central objective of this discussion paper is to present a simple explanation of recent financial crises and, on that basis, to discuss some policy options for individual countries. Systemic policies are not discussed. More emphasis is put on understanding the nature of these crises than on...

This paper assesses the impact of the Liquidity Program for Growth Sustainability (LPGS) on Latin America and the Caribbean, instrumented by the IDB to confront the regional spillovers of the subprime crisis. This emergency liquidity line was set up to boost productive loans of commercial banks,...

This paper deals with remittance trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, including statistics and indicators. In 2010, remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean marked the end of the downward trend brought on by the 2008-2009 global financial and economic crisis. The overall...

La presente edición de Microempresa cuenta un artículo principal donde se examina la evolución de las microfinanzas, tomando Bolivia como estudio de caso. Se utilizan como ejemplo las tres mayores instituciones de microfinanzas (IMFs) de Bolivia --BancoSol, Caja los Andes y FIE-- para...

The importance of having in place a financial regulatory framework that includes macro-prudential regulations was fully recognized during the recent global financial crisis. A central lesson from that episode was that relying on regulations that solely assessed the risks that financial...

This study deals with the appropriate macroeconomic policies toward international capital flows. It argues that countries in a position to integrate themselves into world capital markets should develop specific policies to deal with capital flows. This paper first shows that foreign capital...

This paper proposes a new taxonomy of Sudden Stops comprised of seven categories with definitions depending on the behavior of gross and net capital flows. The incidence of different types of Sudden Stops is tracked over time and the type of Sudden Stop related to economic performance. Sudden...

This paper explores whether the level of financial integration of banks in a country increases the incidence of systemic banking crises. The paper uses a de facto proxy for financial integration based on network statistics of banks participating in the global market of interbank syndicated...