Private and public sector sponsors of infrastructure, industrial and other commercial projects in developing countries are looking increasingly to the project finance structure to fund these operations. The World Bank has an array of financial instruments to support these projects. This paper...

The main objective of this report is to evaluate World Bank lending for small enterprises between FY89 and FY93, including both small and medium enterprises and microenterprises. There has been a marked shift in the Bank's work in this area, and this review details the nature and content of this...

This Note provides guidance to securities markets regulators in emerging market economies (EMEs) about key regulatory issues that could affect the issuance of debt instruments for infrastructure financing over which they have some control. The Note focuses on three areas (placement regime,...

This Policy Note focuses on distribution channels, the role they play in product diversification and costs, and how regulation can promote competition in mutual funds (MFs) distribution. In many emerging market economics (EMEs) where both the capital markets and the MFs have reached certain...

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face significant financing gaps that stifle innovation and economic growth. The credit gap alone is estimated at dollar 4.5 trillion as of 2017 for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) only. Bank financing has been the traditional source of...

The objective of this study is to help assess the possible vulnerabilities in a number of Central European countries as they proceed with global financial integration and EU accession. The report focuses on those countries slated to be the first in the region to join the EU, the Czech Republic,...

This World Bank Discussion Paper brings together two contributions on external debt issues. The first paper discusses the insurability of sovereign debt against default. The second paper reviews numerous studies that have been conducted over the years to identify the variables that could predict...

Over the last two decades banking systems in Latin America have been subject to considerable banking distress and numerous crises. This conference looked at proposals for preventing such episodes. The discussions covered the genesis and implications of deposit insurance cum fractional reserve...

This study evaluates the performance of financial markets in rural areas of Romania based on the 1998 rural household, rural enterprise, and financial intermediary surveys, along with other official statistical data for 1997. It presents empirical evidence indicating that constrained access to...

The fragmentation in African financial markets and its persistence despite reforms to liberalize those markets have been difficult to explain. This paper reports findings from surveys of formal and informal institutions and their clients in Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania to test hypotheses...