Benchmarking financial systems in emerging and / or developing countries: financial development index

This paper aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the financial systems evolution in emerging and / or developing after significant financial changes. This comparative analysis was performed by the calcul of a composite financial development indicator on a sample of 52 emerging and / or developing countries in the period between 1996 and 2009 and from16 variables divided into six dimensions such as depth, efficiency, openness, legal, regulatory and macroeconomic stability. The main results are: (1) most countries which have a high degree of financial systems development are the richest one in terms of per capita income countries. Thus, the high-income countries tend to have more active and efficient financial system, and vice versa. (2) A solid institutional environment characterized by a strong legal and regulatory level limits financial systems development. (3) The regional averages show that the financial development level in Africa and the Middle East countries have relatively weaker in term of financial development. In contrary, Asia and emerging Europe economies have the highest financial development level. Latin America has an intermediate regional financial development score.