Comprehensive Reform In The Financial Services Industry

“This is an extraordinary book from an extraordinary person. This book is an insightful, candid and passionate account of her approach and policy experience. She has called it a ‘Practical Manual’ for reforms – it is that but also much more: a historical record of reforms against all odds.” – Erik Berglof, Director of LSE Institute of Global Affairs “Many emerging economies often lack practical experience in transforming themselves into fully-functioning market-oriented economies and this Practical Manual will help you with this task. Moreover, the book is precisely about how to accomplish drastic reforms in wartime – and I truly believe that the wartime of COVID-19 is an unprecedented opportunity for reform.” – Valeria Gontareva, Former Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine In addition, Valeria received a nomination for her work as the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine in the Financial Times’s Women of the Year 2019 list.

Financial sector liberalization, both domestic and in cross-border transactions, was a major force behind the gradual move to indirect controls and the shift toward full reliance on exchange rate targeting in the Netherlands. This paper analyzes the different steps in this process, discusses the main arguments behind the gradual approach, and draws lessons for other countries involved in this process. The paper argues that reforms in the financial sector, liberalization of the capital account, adjustments in supervision and regulation, and modernization of monetary management are strongly interrelated and should be part of a comprehensive reform strategy.

This paper reviews and assesses the financial sector reforms in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. After a description of the financial sector before reforms, it explains the main features of the comprehensive reform process in each country. It also reviews the sequencing of reforms and discusses econometric evidence of the impact of the reforms on saving in each of the three countries. Subsequently, the paper sets out remaining issues to be addressed in the three countries, including a further strengthening of the banking system and development of financial instruments and markets.

This study analyzes the role of the Bank in helping client countries to implement financial sector reforms. It focuses on the country as the unit of analysis, rather than individual loans, and on performance indicators in the financial and real sectors. Even without full incorporation of lessons still to be drawn from recent East Asia crisis, this study find a satisfactory outcome in only 12 of the 23 countries that it examines. Initial conditions appear to be significant in determining the outcome of reforms, and prior sector work is important for ensuring that policy reforms in Bank loans reflect a country's initial conditions. In general, adjustment loans are more successful and more sustainable in promoting institutional development than are financial intermediaries loans. The main recommendations of the study are that the internal guidelines of financial sector operations provide a valid framework for preparing operations in support of financial sector reforms. The Bank should go beyond these guidelines, however, by incorporating best practices on both substantive issues and Bank processes, after sufficient time has elapsed to evaluate and learn from recent developments in East Asia.

Three years after the onset of the global financial crisis, much has been done to reform the global financial system, but there is much left to accomplish. The regulatory reform agenda agreed by G-20 leaders in 2009 has elevated the discussions to the highest policy level and kept international attention focused on establishing a globally consistent set of rules. Comprehensive reform, once agreed and implemented in full, will have far-reaching implications for the global financial system and the performance of the world economy. In designing the reforms, it is imperative that policymakers keep their focus on the overarching objective of creating a financial system that provides a solid foundation for strong and sustainable economic growth. This paper argues that the current reforms are moving in the right direction, but many policy choices lie ahead—nationally and internationally?which are both urgent and challenging. Policies need to address not only the risks posed by individual banks but also, importantly, those posed by nonbanks and the system as a whole. The recent proposals of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) represent a substantial improvement in the quality and quantity of bank capital, but these apply only to a subset of the financial system.