The Haves and Have-nots Of the Digital Age
By Gita Bhatt
Accelerated by the pandemic, the digital future is coming at us faster than ever before, and maybe faster than we can imagine. In this issue of Finance & Development magazine, we explore the possible consequences—the good, the bad, and the gray. […]
A Capital Market Union for Europe: Why It’s Needed and How to Get There
By Ashok Vir Bhatia, Srobona Mitra, and Anke Weber
When savers and firms invest and borrow beyond their national borders, they enjoy opportunities to diversify their portfolios and lower their funding costs, respectively. […]
A Role for Financial and Monetary Policies in Climate Change Mitigation
By William Oman
July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on earth, with countries across the world experiencing record-breaking temperatures. […]
Bank Profitability: Consider the Source
By Udaibir S. Das, Kun Hu, and TengTeng Xu
The global financial crisis of 2007–2009 and the ensuing period of low interest rates have renewed interest among policy makers in the relationship between bank profitability and financial stability. […]
Countries in the IMF Financial Spotlight in 2019
By IMFBlog
In 2019, the IMF will complete 14 assessments under the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). Eight of this year’s assessments are mandatory: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, Singapore, and Switzerland. The other six are voluntary: Algeria, Bahamas, Kuwait, FYR Macedonia, Malta, and Thailand. […]
Sounding the Alarm on Leveraged Lending
By Tobias Adrian, Fabio Natalucci, and Thomas Piontek
November 15, 2018
A drilling crew member raises a pipe on an oil rig in Texas: Energy is among the industries in which leveraged lending is most prevalent, along with telecommunications, health care, and technology (photo: Nick Oxford/Reuters/Newscom)
We warned in the most recent Global Financial Stability Report that speculative excesses in some financial markets may be approaching a threatening level. […]
Chart of the Week: Financial Reform Report Card
By Tobias Adrian, Dirk Jan Grolleman, and Anastasiia Morozova
October 29, 2018
Countries have improved banking sector regulation considerably in the past decade, but areas of weakness remain (Steve Gottlieb/Newscom)
The many 10th anniversary retrospectives of the global financial crisis mostly agree: the financial system is safer today than it was when US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. […]
The Financial System Is Stronger, but New Vulnerabilities Have Emerged in the Decade Since the Crisis
October 10, 2018
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Debt owed by governments, companies and households in economies with globally systemically important financial sectors has risen since the global financial crisis (Photo: Richard B. Levine/Newscom)
Although the global expansion has plateaued, easy monetary policies continue to support growth. But we shouldn’t rest too easily. Chapter 1 of the latest Global Financial Stability Report finds that short-term risks to the financial system have increased somewhat over the past six months. […]