While most everyone would agree that valuations matter, the question remains as to whether clients with a long-term outlook (such as those planning for retirement) can hope to act successfully on information about valuations. This article provides favorable evidence based on the historical...

Since February 2010, detailed information on every home mortgage default and foreclosure in New York State must be filed with the New York State Banking Department (NYSBD). Our analysis of the NYSBD data suggests that borrowers in default who took larger loans are more likely to progress to a...

Many of Asia‟s retirement-income systems are ill prepared for the rapid population ageing that will occur over the next two decades. The demographic transition – to fewer babies and longer lives – took a century in Europe and North America. In Asia, this transition will often occur in a...

The financial system has always been subject to complex public scrutiny for a number of reasons, aimed at ensuring, for example, the efficient mobilization of savings, the effective management of banking crises and their possible domino effects, while enhancing competition and safeguarding...

Factors such as the spread of complex financial instruments, the broadening of available alternatives, have fostered more decisive public intervention in support of transparency between banks and their customers. The effectiveness of the public intervention measures depends on the actual...

This note critically discusses the possible endogenous problems that microfinance sector in Bangladesh should seriously take into account. It also draws possible explanations and/or consequences of these factors. The broad understanding is that the sector should emphasize credit plus programs,...

The literature suggests Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) and remittances may protect poor households from income risk. We present a theoretical framework that explores how this ‘insurance’ effect can change households’ decision to apply for a loan via changes in credit demand and supply....

This article presents a practical methodology to monitor poverty changes among microfinance clients using available household panel data. As an example, it presents an estimation of the net number of people that rose above the $1/day poverty line while members of Grameen Bank and BRAC during...

This article simulates the savings rates required to meet retirement income goals in the worst-case scenario from overlapping historical periods for savers in 19 developed market countries. In the baseline, workers save for 30 years to replace 50 percent of their pre-retirement net income with...

The race is on to build frameworks to evaluate retirement income strategies for clients facing various post-retirement circumstances. Retirement income planning is a complicated process in which clients must balance competing tradeoffs (maximize spending, protect from income shortfalls, leave a...