A new database of World Bank loans to support financial sector development is used to investigate whether countries that received such loans experienced more rapid growth on standard indicators of financial development than countries that did not. Self-selection is accounted for with treatment-effects regressions. The results indicate that borrowing countries had significantly more rapid growth in M2/GDP than nonborrowers and swifter reductions in interest rate spreads and cash holdings (as a share of M2). Borrowers also had higher private credit growth rates than nonborrowers in some treatment-effects regressions but not in standard panel regressions with fixed country effects. On the whole, the results indicate some significant advantages in financial development for borrowers over nonborrowers.

Using data from a survey of 91 banks in 45 countries, the authors characterize bank financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. They find that banks perceive the SME segment to be highly profitable, but perceive macroeconomic instability in developing countries and competition in developed countries as the main obstacles. To serve SMEs banks have set up dedicated departments and decentralized the sale of products to the branches. However, loan approval, risk management, and loan recovery functions remain centralized. Compared with large firms, banks are less exposed to small enterprises, charge them higher interest rates and fees, and experience more non-performing loans from lending to them. Although there are some differences in SMEs financing across government, private, and foreign-owned banks - with the latter being more likely to engage in arms-length lending - the most significant differences are found between banks in developed and developing countries. Banks in developing countries tend to be less exposed to SMEs...

This report was prepared in close collaboration with the Bank of Albania. This report focused on trade, services, and agriculture; however, the limited scope of their operations still leaves a potentially large unmet demand for credit in agriculture. This report focuses on problems related to the operation of Immovable Property Registry System (IPRS) and other institutions and the formalization of property rights and inscription of mortgages. This study believes the reform with most optimum impact on sustainable credit growth will be focused on (i) improving the quality, breadth, and depth of financial intermediation, (ii) growth and development of credit unions and microfinance institutions, and (iii) facilitate the development of new instruments. The authorities will also focus on implementing reforms to become compliant with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendation.

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...

The financial system faces a weak economic outlook and a deteriorating fiscal position posing substantial macroeconomic risks. As a result, sovereign risk has increased while the fixed exchange rate further limits policy options. The financial system has sizeable sovereign risk exposures and non-performing loans are rising although high capital and liquidity buffers in combination with strong parent entities mitigate risks. Credit unions appear more vulnerable. Since the 2008 financial sector assessment program (FSAP), the regulatory and supervisory framework has improved across all sectors. Consolidated risk-based supervision was introduced in the banking sector along with a formalization of supervisory methodologies. The government has committed a major adjustment package aimed at stabilizing international reserves and consolidating the fiscal position. Even if planned policies are successful, Barbados will continue to face challenging growth prospects, driven by weakened tourism markets, including Canada, the United Kingdom...

The paper starts with an overview of Cambodia’s rice sector, with a particular attention to aspects which affect its need for external working capital finance, and characteristics and constraints that could hinder access to such finance (e.g., warehousing capacity, processing constraints, logistics, and market risks). Chapter two describes the general conditions for crop-based financing in Cambodia’s rice sector. Chapter three discusses policy options for enhancing the use of paddy and rice as collateral for financing. The chapter sets out the two main modalities: collateral management, and public warehousing. Both collateral management and public warehousing work best when certain support structures are in place, in particular an indemnity system, a system for the electronic trading of warehouse receipts, and a facility for refinancing warehouse receipt loans (which could be managed by the Central Bank or outsourced to another competent entity such as an investment fund). These are discussed in separate sections. The various sections describe the situation as currently prevails in Cambodia...

RESUMEN: El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es analizar la influencia del riesgo soberano sobre el canal de crédito de la política monetaria desde una doble perspectiva. La primera parte examina cómo el riesgo soberano determina los efectos de la política monetaria sobre los préstamos bancarios durante restricciones y expansiones monetarias. La segunda parte estudia el impacto del riesgo soberano sobre el crédito comercial, tanto directamente como a través de la política monetaria. En la primera parte, los resultados muestran que los bancos que operan en países con mayor riesgo soberano contraen más su oferta crediticia durante restricciones monetarias, mientras que no existen suficientes evidencias de que aumenten menos su oferta de préstamos durante expansiones monetarias. Asimismo, cuando el riesgo soberano es muy elevado, los bancos reducen su oferta de crédito independientemente del régimen monetario. En la segunda parte, los resultados indican que, durante la crisis, el crédito comercial extendido y neto (diferencia entre el crédito comercial extendido y recibido) descienden a medida que aumenta el riesgo soberano. Sin embargo, en los años de crisis, el crédito comercial recibido se incrementa cuanto mayor es el riesgo soberano...

The purpose of this paper is to report on the level of access to formal financial services in the Kyrgyz Republic, assess the key obstacles to improving access, and make recommendations to overcome these obstacles. The paper is organized as follows. Sections II to IV examine the supply of financial services. Specifically, section II presents a profile of financial intermediation by banks, focusing their supply of financial services, particularly lending and deposits. Section III presents a profile of lending by Aiyl Bank, a specialized bank with a limited license, which is mandated to lend for agriculture. Section IV presents a profile of lending by non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), including microfinance organizations (MFOs) and credit unions. Section V examines the demand side for financial services, drawing on enterprise surveys to assess firms' perceptions of their access to finance. Section VI presents a brief analysis of the impact of the events of April 2010 on access to finance. Section VII discusses key obstacles in increasing access to finance from banks and NBFIs. Section VIII concludes with policy recommendations that derive from the preceding analysis.

Over the past five years in Turkey, the agricultural and rural sector has seen substantial change in transfer policies which now place greater emphasis on improved equity and investment. These have been summarized in the earlier World Bank "Review of the Impact of the Reform of Agricultural Sector Subsidization (2004), and "Policy and Investment Priorities for Agricultural and Rural Development" (2005). Currently, the structural changes in the agricultural sector and rural employment generation in response to labor shedding in the agricultural sector are key challenges to which Turkey is responding in the design of and agricultural and rural development strategy. However, the impact of government transfers and public investment policies in the rural sector will be limited unless the supply of, access to, and demand for rural financial services is significantly increased. For these reasons, the Turkey Rural Finance study (RFS) seeks to establish a policy agenda for the Government of Turkey (GOT) in order to contribute to the effort of renewed growth of the rural financial system after a period of prolonged decline. In order to inform this policy agenda...

This paper examines the impact of bank ownership on credit growth in developing countries before and during the 2008-2009 crisis. Using bank-level data for countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America, it analyzes the growth of banks' total gross loans as well as the growth of corporate, consumer, and residential mortgage loans. Although domestic private banks in Eastern Europe and Latin America contracted their loan growth rates during the crisis, there are differences in foreign and government-owned bank credit growth across regions. In Eastern Europe, foreign bank total lending fell by more than domestic private bank credit. These results are primarily driven by reductions in corporate loans. Furthermore, government-owned banks in Eastern Europe did not act counter-cyclically. The opposite was true in Latin America, where the growth of government-owned banks' corporate and consumer loans during the crisis exceeded that of domestic and foreign banks. Contrary to the case of foreign banks in Eastern Europe...

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...

This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000, spells out the guiding principles of the Bank's work: country ownership, long-term integrated approach, partnership, and results focus. This vision was put into practice under a pilot approach, the Comprehensive Development Framework. The following are some of the highlights of Fiscal Year 2000: a) The share of projects at risk of not achieving their development objectives fell to an estimated 15 percent of the total in fiscal 2000, or roughly half the rate of fiscal 1998. b) New lending commitments declined to $15.3 billion. c) Seven countries qualified for debt relief under the enhanced initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, six of them in Africa. d) The Bank and the International Monetary Fund began to help countries prepare Poverty Reduction Strategies, which are becoming the basis for debt relief and concessional lending by the Bank, the Fund, and other development partners. e) The Bank announced up to $1 billion support to help borrowers of the International Development Association to combat HIV/AIDS...

Two main issues at the interface between economic growth and financial stability are germane to this year's article four consultation and the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) update: the first is why the recent pace of financial catching-up has been so much slower in Poland than in its regional peers, and whether this might hamper Poland's long-term economic prospects; and the second question is how significant the prudential risks associated with rapid growth in housing loans are. The chapter is organized as follows: section II.B discusses credit developments in the last decade and factors driving these developments and assesses implications for economic growth. Section II.C examines reasons for rapid growth of foreign currency lending and implications for financial stability. Section II.D (and appendix) review cross-country experiences with policy responses to rapid credit growth of foreign currency credit and discuss recent policy measures taken in Poland. Section II.E concludes the chapter.

This report reviews loan classification and provisioning practices in a broad sample of countries that differ in size, location and level of financial development. The survey conducted for the report compares the regulatory approaches adopted by industrial and emerging economies, and is intended to complement other sources of information that focus exclusively on either industrial or developing countries. It covers classification of individual and multiple loans, treatment of guarantees, collateral and restructured loans, bank loans review processes, loan loss provisioning, tax treatment of loan loss provisions, disclosure standards, and external auditors' role. Differences in provisioning and classification approaches have often made difficult a comparison of bank and banking system weaknesses across regulatory regimes. Poor classification and provisioning practices have led to solvency ratios that gave a false sense of security, as occurred when seemingly adequately capitalized financial systems failed in the 1990s. Successful regulatory harmonization therefore requires a set of minimum standards for loan classification that is grounded in sound risk management practices...

Until the late 1960s, the World Bank presented itself as an institution devoted to making sound and directly productive project loans. Yet, during its very early years, some discussions developed inside the Bank regarding the possibility of issuing different types of loans, namely (i) loans aimed at tackling social issues ("social loans"), and (ii) loans aimed at providing foreign currency to address disequilibria in the balance of payments ("impact loans"). This paper brings together historical analysis and theories of organization development to study the housing issue as a case in point. The analysis reveals that the Bank was unwilling to lend for housing programs not because these were not sound - in fact, they were - but because they were geared toward achieving social welfare objectives and were not directly linked to productive investment projects, such as dams, power stations, and railroads. This early decision had a significant impact on the subsequent development of the Bank's view of policy-making: it locked the institution into a particular lending pattern...

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.

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...

Mongolia’s growth sharply slowed to 3.0 percent in the first half of 2015. External demand is weakening due to a continued dampening of the commodity market and slower growth in China, translating into a drop in exports. Slowing domestic demand is largely caused by a plunge in investment due to falling foreign direct investment (FDI). Measures were taken to curb the budget deficit, debt, and off-budget expenditures. New deficit and debt ceilings were set for 2015-18 by amending the fiscal stability law (FSL) in January. The 2015 budget was amended in January to curb the structural deficit within 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Growth is expected to slow in 2015-16, but a recovery in foreign investment will begin to support the growth of the non-mining sector in 2016. The Development Bank of Mongolia (DBM) is expected to provide about Mongolian Tughrik rates (MNT) 600 billion to its commercial portfolio in 2015, and to further reduce its commercial spending to MNT 300-400 billion in the next couple of years due to tight financing conditions. Under these assumptions...