Making Finance Work for Africa presents a coherent policy approach that addresses African priorities and can work in African conditions. It challenges the applicability of some conventional views on a range of issues from securities markets and banking regulation to the organization of...

Financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond is a call to arms for a new approach to Africa's financial sector development. First, policy makers should focus on increasing competition within and outside the banking sector to foster innovation. This implies a more open regulatory mindset,...

Cross-border banking has been a critical part of Africa's financial history since colonial times. While the period after independence saw a wave of nationalization across the continent, with many of the colonial banks exiting, this trend was reversed in the 1980s with the arrival of financial...

This paper is organized as follows: Chapter 1 Introduction. Chapter 2 investigates the extent to which the supply of banking services has increased or diminished over time, and also analyzes factors underlying the spatial distribution of banking services, and the relative roles of public and...

Africa's financial systems face challenges across many dimensions, as discussed in the report financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond. The analysis in that report was based partly on several detailed background papers that are included in this volume. The next six chapters are written by...

This first World Bank Knowledge Report launches what is intended as a series of World Bank Knowledge Reports. Although knowledge is a fundamental to the Bank s overall mission, and informs all of the Bank s development activities, it has not received the same degree of attention from management...

This report presents the results of a novel study on land transparency in Vietnam; a study that focuses on the actual provision of information related to land. This study was produced as part of the Vietnam Transparency Project, an effort to systematically measure transparency, provide...

A focus on development results is at the heart of the Latin America and Caribbean Region s approach to delivering programs and policy advice with partners in middle-income and low income countries alike. Through knowledge, convening activities, and financial services we strive to help people...

The Latin America and Caribbean region has had impressive achievements in the past decade, such as cutting extreme poverty by half and adding more than 50 million people to the middle class. Beyond the positive external conditions, it was the concerted efforts and dedication of the region's...