Interest in access to finance has increased significantly in recent years, as growing evidence suggests that lack of access to credit prevents lower-income households and small firms from financing high return investment projects, having an adverse effect on growth and poverty alleviation. This...

Over the past decades, many countries have implemented significant reforms to foster domestic capital market development. These reforms included stock market liberalization, privatization programs, and the establishment of regulatory and supervisory frameworks. Despite the intense reform...

Over the past decades, many countries have implemented significant reforms to foster capital market development. Latin American countries were at the forefront of this process. The authors analyze where Latin American capital markets stand after these reforms. They find that despite the intense...

During the 1980s and 1990s, the financial sector was the Achilles heel of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since then, LAC's financial systems have continued to gain in soundness, depth and diversity, becoming more integrated and competitive, with new actors, markets, and instruments...