This report presents findings of a study of Bank lending to small and medium enterprises (SME) in Serbia. The study uses methodology developed by the Bank and already used in a number of studies in South America. The study is based on answers to standard questionnaires and detailed on-site interviews with eight banks. The interviewed banks are the most active in SME lending in Serbia and account for about 70 percent of the total market. Banks are currently offering a fairly broad range of both tailored and standardized products and are increasingly flexible with product pricing. This includes checking, savings and time deposit accounts; export and import loans; overdrafts for working capital and investment loans; business credit cards; various types of payment services; Internet and phone banking. The report is organized as follows: section two describes the banking sector and markets in Serbia, reviews definition of SMEs and provides key characteristics of the SME finance market in Serbia. Section three discusses details of SME access to finance. It describes the drivers and obstacles...

In recent years foreign bank participation has increased tremendously in Latin America. Some observers argue that foreign bank entry will benefit Latin American banking systems by reducing the volatility of loans and deposits and increasing efficiency. Others are concerned that foreign banks might choose to extend credit only to certain customers, leaving some sectors-such as small businesses-unserved. The authors examine this issue. Using bank-level data for Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru during the mid-1990s, they empirically investigate whether bank origin affects the share and growth rate of bank lending to small businesses. They find that although foreign banks generally lent less to small businesses (as share of total lending) than private domestic banks, the difference is due primarily to the behavior of small foreign banks. The difference was considerably smaller for large and medium-sized banks. And in Chile and Colombia, large foreign banks might actually lend slightly more (as share of total lending) than large domestic banks.

Using both market-based and annual report-based approaches to measure lending specialization for a broad cross-section of banks and countries over the period 2002 to 2011, this paper is the first to empirically gauge the relationship between bank lending specialization and bank performance and stability in an international sample. Theory suggests that banks might benefit from specialization in the form of higher screening and monitoring efficiency, while a diversified loan portfolio might also enhance stability. This paper finds that sectoral specialization increases volatility and systemic risk exposures, while not leading to higher returns. The paper also documents important time, cross-bank, and cross-county variation in this relationship, which is stronger post 2007, for richer countries, countries without regulatory requirements on diversification, banks with lower market power, and banks with more traditional intermediation models.

Rising international bank financing to developing countries has fueled a debate on the behavior of these claims. The authors analyze claims from seven home (lender) countries on ten host (borrower) countries in Latin America. They find that banks transmit shocks from their home countries and changes in their claims on other countries spill over to individual hosts. However, lending has become less "indiscriminate" and more responsive to host conditions over time. Responsiveness to the latter becomes less "pro-cyclical" as exposure increases. Finally, foreign bank lending reacts more to positive than to negative host shocks and is not significantly curtailed during crises.

The authors study what drives private capital flows to developing countries, as well as the apparent response of official lending for the years 1978-97. Econometric results reveal that non-foreign direct investment portfolio flows to a country tended to rise in response to: 1) An increase in the current account deficit. 2) A rise in foreign direct investment flows. 3) Higher per capita income. 4) Growth performance. Once those variables were accounted for, private flows did not seem to be influenced by location, and regional factors. In addition, private capital flows (whether foreign direct investment or not) seem to respond positively (with a one-year lag) to World Bank lending commitments. By far the most important determinant of official lending to a developing country, seems to be the external current account balance, or a change in international reserves in the country. Official flows - including World Bank lending - appear to have played a stabilizing (or counter-cyclical) role in response to the volatility of private capital flows...

The purpose of the paper is to present a more granular view of such projects through the in-depth focus on a limited number of case studies, with a view to understanding what factors in the design of such lending have helped achieve objectives of expanded access, and what forms of interventions may have been less successful. It examines the nature of Bank lending vehicles, the partnering borrower institutions, the country environments in which its loans were extended, as well as broader elements of good practice that make for loan success. It examines the beneficiaries targeted and results achieved. It aims to draws lessons that suggest what factors could lead to success or failure in Bank operations focused on financial access. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: section two briefly describes the set of the Bank s projects selected for detailed review. Sections three to six contain the core findings of the review. Section 3 focuses on alternative forms of borrower institutions that have served as vehicles for Bank projects...

This document describes the training course for lawyers and judges in the Palestinian Territories, which was designed as an introduction to residential mortgage lending, and the use of mortgage collateral. These materials begin with a technical description of mortgage lending and mortgage collateral, the purposes and content of mortgage law, and the general conditions for development and expansion of residential mortgage lending activity. This is followed by a discussion of mortgage lending from the perspective of the financial institutions that originate most loans, including the process of making the loan and the economics of mortgage lending. The sections on economics of mortgage lending include the costs to the creditor, the risks faced by residential mortgage creditors, how creditors determine interest rates and other loan terms, and the effect of loan terms on the ability of citizens to borrow. The discussion of the economics of mortgage lending also focuses on recent research showing how laws affecting creditors' rights and court enforcement of creditors' rights may affect the amount and terms of mortgage lending in a country. The document includes a review and discussion of the current mortgage law in the West Bank and Gaza...

Competing theories increasingly support the positive role of social capital in small loan default costs of group lending; at the same time, potential group collusion may increase loan delinquencies. Findings from the available literature are mixed on the role of the various attributes of group lending. But past studies suffer from estimation bias due to the unobserved sorting behavior of group members and their other attributes. This paper attempts to resolve that estimation bias by utilizing longitudinal data from 297 Grameen Bank groups since their inceptions. A dynamic lagged dependent model with correction for time-varying heterogeneity of group and individual behavior is applied to estimate the effect of group liability in the Grameen Bank. The results suggest that group liability matters in both loan disbursement and repayment, with women less of a credit risk than men and women's groups more homogeneous than men's. Finally, the benefits of social capital outweigh the costs of group collusion, especially for women's groups...

Beginning in the late 1990s, the World Bank significantly expanded its engagement at the state level in Brazil, India, Nigeria, and Russia. This pilot cross-country study reviews the selected cases of World Bank's lending and analytic work at the state level in those four large federated countries. In each case, state governments were the Bank's principal development partners. The study looks at the evolution of the four country strategies and the Bank's mode of engagement at the state level, in order to draw lessons from that experience both for the Bank and for its federal and state partners. State-level engagement posed several strategic and operational questions, among them which states to engage, the scope of engagement, and the modalities of engagement. The Bank set out its approach to selecting states in country strategy documents. The findings are worth highlighting. First, the study confirms the desirability of continued selective Bank lending in a few states. However, the poverty impact of those interventions could be enhanced by balancing states' propensity to reform and the concentration of poverty within them...

Good public procurement practices are a major determinant of the effectiveness of public expenditure. On behalf of their citizens, governments typically spend as much as 5-20 percent of their gross domestic product on procurement of goods and services, and effective procurement policies enable better use of government budgets. Good national procurement practices are therefore an essential element of the poverty reduction focus of the Bank. Good procurement in Bank projects is also associated with better development outcomes. Equally, sound public procurement in client countries is a prerequisite for the success of the Bank's newly introduced program for results lending instrument. The Bank seeks to ensure that its funds are used for the purpose intended and that they support development effectively and efficiently. Thus, the twin issues that underpin this Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation are first, how effectively has the World Bank helped build well-functioning public procurement systems in client countries and second...

The 2012 annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) contains messages from both outgoing President Robert B. Zoellick and incoming President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. The Board of Directors statement highlights the Bank's achievements in 2012. The report showcases the Corporate Scorecard, presented in four tiers, providing information on the Bank's overall performance and results. Tier I provides the global development context. Tier II includes aggregate data collected through the standardized sector indicators. Tier III shows the overall success of Bank activities in achieving their development goals, as well as the Bank's operations effectiveness. Tier IV presents the Bank's organizational effectiveness and modernization. The report also discusses the financial commitments and resources, an operational summary, and World Bank lending by theme and sector for 2007-2012. Additional information on activities and outcomes is available in the annexes.; Office of the President (EXC)

During a financial crisis, credit provision by international banks may be stymied by three distinct, but related, channels: changes in lending standards as a result of increased economic uncertainty, changes in funding availability from interbank liquidity markets, and changes in solvency due to effects on bank balance sheets. This paper illuminates the manner by which each of these channels independently operated to affect developed-country bank lending in developing countries during the global financial crisis of 2007/09. It quantifies how changes in banks' uncertainty about the value of their asset holdings, access to interbank liquidity, and internal balance sheet considerations altered their supply of credit in the run-up, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, both in terms of their relative magnitudes, as well as the sensitivity of these magnitudes to the crisis.

This evaluation presents an independent assessment of the Bank's support for financial sector reforms over the period FY93-03. It is the second part of a two-part evaluation; the first part of the assessment covered lines of credit. This volume focuses on Bank lending for financial sector reforms, including both lending categorized under the financial sector and financial sector components of multi-sector loans. The assessment examines trends in lending, the quality at entry of Bank assistance; and the outcomes of individual loans and components addressing financial sector reforms. It also assesses the extent to which the objectives of Bank assistance were achieved, including reducing government ownership of financial intermediaries, decreased market concentration, increased competition and efficiency, healthier and more stable financial intermediaries, and deeper, more developed financial systems. Finally, the assessment examines Bank support for financial sector reforms in countries under crisis.

This report is a synthesis of three evaluations carried out by the Independent Evaluation Group and completed between July 2005 and February 2006, on different aspects of Bank assistance to financial sector development in client countries. The three evaluation reports are World Bank Lending for Lines of Credit: An Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) Evaluation; IEG Review of World Bank Assistance for Financial Sector Reform; and Financial Sector Assessment Program: IEG Review of the Joint World Bank and IMF Initiative. This paper seeks to draw out common themes and issues that have arisen from the three evaluations, which reviewed major components of the Bank's assistance during more than a decade to the financial sectors of client countries.

The note assesses how the volume, distribution, structure, and objectives of Bank lending for civil service reform have changed in recent years. Bank operations in civil service reform usually refers to interventions that affect the organization, performance, and working conditions of employees paid by government budgets, but excludes reforms that affect police, the armed forces, public health care workers, public school teachers, and employees of state enterprises. Assessments of such reform are relevant in that they can also help countries improve governance, thus fostering good policy making, effective service delivery, and accountable resource use. Findings based on an Operations Evaluation Department's review of such lending, indicates a growing number of standalone civil service reform projects between 1980 and 1997. However, between fiscal 1999 and 2001, only 4 of 62 civil service reform interventions were standalone, being the rest components of major lending operations. The note further reviews the distribution of new lending...

Using a new database of World Bank loans to support financial sector development, the authors investigate whether countries that received such loans experienced more rapid growth on standard indicators of financial development than countries that did not. They account for self-selection with treatment effects regressions, and also use propensity score matching techniques. The authors' results indicate that borrowing countries had significantly more rapid growth in M2/GDP than non-borrowers, and swifter reductions in interest rate spreads and cash holdings (as a share of M2). Borrowers also had higher private credit growth rates than non-borrowers in treatment effects regressions, but not in standard panel regressions with fixed country effects. On the whole, however, the results indicate significant advantages for borrowers over non-borrowers in terms of financial development.

This paper analyzes the lending behavior of foreign-owned banks during the recent global crisis. Using bank-level panel data for countries in Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Latin America, the paper explores the role of affiliate and parent financial characteristics, host location, as well as the impact of parent geographic origin and reach on foreign banks' credit growth. Overall, the analysis finds robust evidence that foreign banks curtailed the growth of credit relative to other banks, independent of the host region. Banks from the United States reduced loan growth less than other parent banks. Neither the global nor regional reach of parent banks influenced the lending growth of foreign affiliates. However, the funding structure of foreign bank affiliates and the capitalization of parent banks do help explain the lending behavior of foreign banks during the global crisis. Although not the focus of the paper, it also finds that government-owned banks played a countercyclical role in all regions.

The World Bank has agreed to support power sector reforms in Haryana with a new type of lending instrument--the adaptable program loan--recently approved by its board of directors. Under this approach, being applied for the first time, the Bank will provide a series of loans totaling US$600 million over eight to ten years, but will commit the loans only when the state government has reached agreed milestones. This approach allows the state government milestones--not the covenants of standard World Bank loans --to determine the timing of controversial actions. The flexibility is intended to improve the reform program's chances of success and avoid the stop-start lending pattern that has characterized the Bank's past lending to state electricity boards. This Note explains Haryana's reform strategy and how the adaptable program loan applies. Haryana's reform could have an important demonstration effect.

This study investigates the impact of World Bank development policy lending on the quality of economic policy. It finds that the quality of policy increases, but at a diminishing rate, with the cumulative number of policy loans. Similar results hold for the cumulative number of conditions attached to policy loans, although quadratic specifications indicate that additional conditions may even reduce the quality of policy beyond some point. The paper measures the quality of economic policy using the World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessments of macro, debt, fiscal and structural policies, and considers only policy loans targeted at improvements in those areas. Previous studies finding weaker effects of policy lending on macro stability have failed to distinguish loans primarily intended to improve economic policy from other loans targeted at improvements in sector policies or in public management. The paper also shows that investing in economic policy does not "crowd out" policy improvements in other areas such as public sector governance or human development. The results are robust to using alternative indicators of policy quality...

Bridging the external financing gap has been an important factor in borrowing cgovernment's demand for World Bank loans. The demand for IBRD and IDA lending is positively related to an increase in debt service payments and inversely related to a borrowing country's level of reserves. These two variables explain a large part of the variation in IBRD and IDA lending commitments, not only since the Asian crisis but also during tranquil times over the past two decades. Borrowing to service debt during a crisis is consistent with the Bank's role as a lender of last resort as well as with its core development objectives, but such borrowing during tranquil times may conflict with the Bank's long-term objective of reducing poverty. That investment lending commitments are related to debt service payments implies that aid may be more fungible than previously believed. If Bank lending is fungible and there is no guarantee that a particular Bank loan is financing an identified investment project or program, a case could be made for greater use of programmatic lending (with well-defined conditionality) As developing countries become larger and more integrated with volatile international capaital markets...