Showing papers on "Financial sector development published in 1991"

Developing financial institutions for the poor and reducing barriers to access for women

Abstract: Poor people, especially poor women, commonly have limited access to financial services. So donors and governments have invested substantially in developing financial services for them. Most of these efforts have been large-scale, formal regulated programs that have emphasized providing subsidized credit to poor farmers. Experience has shown that they have largely failed. The main underlying premise of these programs was that market interest rates were too high and made credit inaccessible to the poor. This paper reviews experience with financial services programs for the poor, especially poor women -- who face more severe (and sometimes different) obstacles to such services than men. It provides background on the types of lending programs designed to reach poor people and it discusses poor people's use of and access to savings facilities and credit. The dismal experience with traditional, subsidized credit programs is analyzed and alternative approaches to expanding financial services to the poor are described. Finally, the report identifies the main characteristics of successful, informal and quasiformal credit and savings programs and presents conclusions.

Financial systems and development in Africa

Abstract: The focus of this program is on the improvement of decision-making in seven important areas dealing with the structure, reform, and development of financial systems in developing countries. The areas covered are: (a) reform of the structure of financial systems; (b) policies and regulations to prevent or deal with insolvency and illiquidity of financial intermediaries; (c) the development of markets for short- and long-term financial instruments; (d) the role of institutional elements in the development of financial systems; (e) the links between the financial sector and the real sectors, particularly in the case of restructuring financial and industrial institutions or enterprises; (f) the dynamics of financial systems management in terms of stabilization and adjustment; and (g) access to international financial markets. This book assembles the collection of documents circulated at the Senior Policy Seminar on Financial Systems and Development in Africa. It also includes the report that synthesizes the presentations made at the seminar and the content of the discussions which followed them.

Financial reform in socialist economies in transition

Abstract: Neither in theory nor in practice have financial economists confronted a problem as all encompassing as the reform of financial systems in the socialist economies in transition (SET). In the economics literature, the impact of the financial system on the productive sectors has been a subject of much dispute, and the analysis has not been completely satisfactory. In particular, country experience has only involved the diagnosis and design of remedies for comparatively limited specific problems and the implementation of marginal changes in working systems. The problems being tackled today in the SET are hence beyond both our theoretical range and prior experience in country work. The purpose of this paper is to raise some of the important issues that emerge in the process of financial reform and venture some tentative suggestions. The discussion centers mainly on banking, which in the SET is the dominant segment of the financial sector. It considers the link between financial structure and the productive sector. It deals with a range of structural issues, including efficiency, contestability, ownership, separation of banking and industry and regulation. It also examines the transitional problems involved in implementing the new structure, and the sequencing of reforms.

Going to market : privatization in Central and Eastern Market Europe

Abstract: The ultimate objective of economic reforms in Central and Eastern Europe is the creation of flexible and efficient market economies. Attaining this objective requires comprehensive action on at least four fronts: macro-economic stabilization, price and market reforms, privatization of state enterprises, and redefining the role of the state. Each of these is a momentous undertaking, and none of these can succeed without considerable and simultaneous progress in the other areas. This paper discusses primarily issues and options in the privatization of large industrial enterprises. The authors explain the key choices to be made in privatization: which state assets should be privatized, whether assets should be sold or given away, how to physically and financially restructure enterprises to meet present realities, and what role to allow foreign investors.