Debt-for-development exchanges grew out of debt-equity exchanges and now include debt-for-nature, debt-for-education and debt2health exchanges, among other variants. The history of the evolution of this idea sheds considerable light upon the technique and allows a more nuanced appreciation of it

The global financial system has proven increasingly unstable and crisis-prone since the early 1980s. The system has failed to serve either creditors or debtors well. This has been reinforced by the global financial crisis of 2008, where we have seen systemic weaknesses bring rich countries to...

The provision of financial services through mobile phones is a powerful tool to foster financial inclusion in developing countries. Yet, it raises important regulatory questions. Given the vulnerability of the vast majority of potential customers of these services, one of the most pressing...

The European Commission has included a Eurozone financial transaction tax in its longterm budget, as a first step towards a global tax. This move was taken despite negative European Commission and International Monetary Fund staff reports, which concluded that a tax would reduce the efficiency...

“FinTech”, a contraction of “Financial technology”, refers to technology enabled financial solutions. It is often seen today as the new marriage of financial services and information technology. However, the interlinkage of finance and technology has a long history and has evolved over...

A bankruptcy regime is a central part of each national financial system. Yet no regime exists for insolvent sovereigns. As a result too much capital flows into poor countries in good times and is often repaid at the expense of the basic human rights of the poor in these countries in bad times....

This article assesses the performance of the G20 since the Global Financial Crisis by analysing the regulatory measures it has called for and their current stage of implementation. It then proceeds to consider the changes in the global financial system in the past 40 years and seeks to assess...

During the great period of globalisation before the First World War, the international economy was based on global trade and global finance with monetary policy largely fixed under the gold standard. After the Second World War, a new international system was designed based upon global trade,...

This paper focuses on how technology might reshape payments going forward. It considers the policy issues and choices associated with crypto-currencies, stablecoins and sovereign digital currencies and emphasises that there is no single model for sovereign digital currency design.While Bitcoin...

In recent years much attention has been given to systemic risk and maintaining financial stability. Much of the focus, rightly, has been on market failures and the role of regulation in addressing them. This article looks at the role of domestic policies and government actions as sources of...