The benefits of financial development and globalization have come with continuing fragility in financial sectors. Periodic crises have had real but heterogeneous welfare impacts and not just for poor people; indeed, some of the conditions that foster deep and persistent poverty, such as lack of connectivity to markets, have provided a degree of protection for the poor. Past crises have also had longer-term impacts for some of those affected, most notably through the nutrition and schooling of children in poor families. As in other areas of policy, effective responses to a crisis require sound data and must take account of incentives and behavior. An important lesson from past experience is that the short-term responses to a crisis-macroeconomic stabilization, trade policies, financial sector policies and social protection-cannot ignore longer-term implications for both economic development and vulnerability to future crises.

While there is growing support for microfinance globally, the unmet demand remains enormous, particularly in Africa, and especially in post-conflict and frontier countries. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), less than 1 percent of the population has access to a bank account. Yet as these countries continue to stabilize, the demand for secure financial services is exploding. The post-conflict nature of these countries magnifies the need for microfinance services, as micro and small enterprises (MSEs) operating at a subsistence level are often the only surviving businesses after a conflict.

In crisis times, depositors get anxious, can run on banks, and withdraw their deposits. Correlated withdrawals of bank deposits could be mitigated if bank deposits are more diversified, that is, held by more individuals. This paper examines the link between the broader access to bank deposits prior to the 2008 crisis and the dynamics of bank deposit growth during the crisis, while controlling for relevant covariates. Employing proxies for access to deposits and the use of bank deposits, the authors find that greater access to bank deposits can make the deposit funding base of banks more resilient in times of financial stress. Policy efforts to enhance financial stability should thus not only focus on macroprudential regulation, but also recognize the positive effect of broader access to bank deposits on financial stability.

Given their widespread presence in rural and poor areas, post offices can play a leading role in advancing financial inclusion. Yet little is known about the type of clients that post offices reach through their financial service offerings as compared with clients of traditional financial institutions (such as commercial banks). This paper documents and analyzes account ownership patterns at post offices in comparison with traditional financial institutions, using the Global Financial Inclusion Indicators (Global Findex) database, which collects data on account ownership at post offices in 60 countries where postal accounts are offered. Controlling for a host of individual characteristics and country fixed effects, the paper finds that post offices are relatively more likely than traditional financial institutions to provide accounts to individuals who are most likely to be from financially vulnerable groups, such as the poor, less educated, and those out of the labor force. The paper also uses data from the Universal Postal Union to explore the degree to which different postal business models and the size of the postal network help explain differences in account ownership patterns. The results suggest that post offices can boost account ownership by acting as cash-merchants for transactional financial services...

Many firms in the developing world -- including a majority of micro, small, and medium enterprises -- operate in the informal economy. The informal firms face a variety of constraints, making it harder for them to do business and grow. Lack of access to finance is often cited as the biggest operational constraint these firms face. This paper documents the use of finance and financing patterns of informal firms, highlights differences between use of finance by formal and informal firms, and identifies the most significant characteristics of informal firms that are associated with higher use of financial services. The analysis shows that use of loans and bank accounts for business by informal firms is very low and a vast majority finances their day-to-day operations and investments through sources other than financial institutions (internal funds, moneylenders, family, and friends). A majority of informal firm owners would like their firms to become formal but do not do so as it would require them to pay taxes. Registered firms are 54 percent more likely to have a bank account and 32 percent more likely to have loans. Results also show that firm size...

Vietnam has made progress to improve oversight and control over cash balances for the state budget. The current arrangement however falls short of a treasury single account (TSA), which has led to inefficiencies in the management of cash balances and higher than necessary borrowing costs. In response to this, the Government of Vietnam has embarked on reforms to adopt a TSA and strengthen overall cash management. This policy note provides a review of progress in implementing a TSA system in Vietnam, the remaining challenges and obstacles, and how to overcome these for further TSA and cash management reforms. It is the product of ongoing discussions between the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance. Part A gives background and motivation; part B provides an overview of the state treasury system in Vietnam; part C reviews the progress in establishing a TSA, including against benchmarks of international good practice, and makes recommendations for priority next steps; and part D concludes with a review of cash management functions.

This review of the Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy Framework (CPFL) in Paraguay was undertaken in response to a request for technical assistance in this area made by the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP). The objectives were: (i) to assess the existing consumer protection and financial literacy framework by reviewing laws, regulations, and actual practices in Paraguay, and comparing it with international good practice; and (ii) to provide recommendations on ways to improve the level of financial consumer protection and financial literacy in the country. The Diagnostic Review provides a detailed assessment of the institutional, legal and regulatory framework for consumer protection in four segments of the financial sector: (i) banks and finance companies, (ii) financial cooperatives, (iii) insurance companies, and, - in reflection of the important role they play in Paraguay - (iv) non-bank agents and mobile payment providers. Its findings and recommendations cover six thematic areas: (i) Institutional Arrangements...

In July 2013, the World Bank Group launched its Strategy, outlining how it will partner more effectively with clients to help them achieve the ambitious goals of eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity through economic growth, inclusion, sustainability and resilience. In April 2014, the World Bank Group Corporate Scorecard was launched for the first time and the World Bank Scorecard revised to monitor the implementation of the strategy. The World Bank Group Scorecard provides view of the results and performance indicators of the three World Bank Group institutions: the World Bank (WB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). This brochure presents the scorecards, updated with the latest data available in fiscal year 2015. The scorecards are structured in three tiers. A tier one and two presents indicators monitoring aspects of growth, inclusiveness, and sustainability and resilience. Tier three captures the progress in implementing the World Bank Group strategy and includes measures of both operational and organizational effectiveness.

The development of a far reaching correspondent banking network is one of the key factors behind Brazil's success story in financial inclusion. Between 2005 and 2011, the number of correspondents approximately doubled to more than 160,000. The Central Bank encouraged financial institutions to reach out to more distant consumers and to communities where they had not previously been active, including lower income areas, through partnerships with a variety of retail establishments including some with public ties such as the post office network and lottery agencies. Regulators have gradually reduced restrictions on correspondent banking, such as individual approval processes, in response to early successes with this program. The legal framework also facilitated healthy expansion by putting the onus on regulated institutions to train and monitor their correspondents. This Technical Note (TN) does not include an analysis of the causes underlying Brazil's continued high credit cost but many of the issues discussed here may be contributing factors. These include the lack of savings and related dependence on credit which may reduce price elasticity in credit markets; information asymmetries which add to the cost of credit evaluation and increase risk for lenders; and competition issues (as with mobile payments and the so-called no-surcharge-rule on payment methods). The Aide Memoire for the FSAP mission provides further discussion of these important issues.

This detailed assessment of the current state of implementation of the Basel core principles in Mexico has been completed as part of a financial sector assessment program update undertaken jointly by the International monetary fund and the World Bank. The assessment was conducted in September 2011 to update the 2006 assessment. It reflects the banking supervision practices of the country as of end-July 2011. Moreover, the bar to measure the effectiveness of a supervisory framework was raised following the recent financial crisis. The assessment is based on several sources: 1) a self-assessment in August 2011 by the country authorities, including written answers to an exhaustive questionnaire; 2) detailed interviews with staff from the relevant national agencies, including the CNBV (Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores), the Central Bank of Mexico (BoM), the SHCP (Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico), and the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF); 3) relevant laws, directives, circulars and guidelines...

This paper uses World Bank survey data, including about 10,000 households in five countries -- Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda -- to investigate the link between international remittances and households' financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that receiving international remittances increases the probability that the household opens a bank account in all the five countries. This result is robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of remittances, using as instruments indicators of the migrants' economic conditions in the destination countries.

This Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) seeks to evaluate the conditions under which the Palestinian private sector currently operates in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza strip. This assessment is both an update and expansion on a similar assessment undertaken by the World Bank in 2006. As such, it provides both a snapshot of the investment climate in 2013, as well as a longitudinal view of what has changed in the intervening seven years and, just as importantly, what has not. Where relevant, it also compares indicators of the Palestinian investment climate with those of other countries in the region and beyond. The objective of this assessment is to provide the Palestinian business community, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the international development community with an empirical analysis of the investment climate under which Palestinian businesses operate. The report describes the key constraints on business and investment and identifies reform priorities for those aspects of the investment climate and constraints which are within the PA's control...

In order to understand the impact of facilitating access to savings accounts and to examine the importance of these barriers for formal savings, author designed a field experiment among smallholder cash crop farmers in Malawi. In partnership with a local microfinance institution, author randomized offers of account-opening and deposit assistance for formal savings accounts. In order to test the importance of individual self-control problems or pressure to share resources with others in the social network, treated farmers were randomly assigned to one of two types of savings interventions. The first group was offered an 'ordinary' bank account with standard features. The second group was offered the ordinary account as well as a 'commitment' savings account.

The second Lao PDR investment climate assessment identifies the key constraints of the country's non-resource sector firms. This Assessment summarizes the results of a national survey conducted in late-2009 and draws on extensive interviews with policymakers and practitioners. Survey results reveal the nature of constraints that various non-resource sector firms in Lao PDR currently face. The results provide an analysis of the firms' performance and productivity. Supporting an international exchange of knowledge, this survey's results have been compared to numerous studies conducted by the World Bank in over 100 developing countries, which share similar methodological approaches. Due to rapid economic growth in recent years, Lao PDR has emerged from low income to middle-income country status in 2011, according to the World Bank. The development of the non-resource sector is essential to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth in Lao PDR. Non-resource sectors are more stable than resource sectors, and provide more long-term employment. The non resource sector is expected to contribute more than half of Lao PDR's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and 75 percent of the GDP in the medium-term. To achieve these results...

This summary report is the culmination of a comprehensive, more than a year-long, collaboration between the World Bank, Fiji Department of Social Welfare (DSW), Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics (FIBOS) and AusAID. It reflects various activities undertaken under the work program that was agreed upon with the Government of Fiji (GOF), with financial support provided by AusAID under the Externally Funded Output (EFO) agreement with the World Bank. The objective of this report is to present the key findings and issues that emerged from the analysis, as well as potential options for policy changes. The recommendations are made with a view of being very concrete, and also with understanding that while some of them could be implemented quickly, others should be considered for medium to long term. This summary report intentionally omits some technical details, since those are available in the accompanying background papers on various issues. The remainder of the report is structured as follows. Section two presents the profile of poverty and vulnerability in Fiji. It is intended to provide a context for the discussion of the social protection system. Section three presents a brief overview of the current social protection system in Fiji. Section four presents the key design features of Family Assistance Program (FAP) and discusses the program's strengths and challenges by looking at the range of the performance indicators. The discussion in this section reflects the findings emerging from the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the FAP. Section five considers some of the policy options for the design of the SP system moving forward. In a way...

Since the implementation of decentralization in 2001, district governments have been getting increased responsibilities to provide education services to the citizen. Basic and secondary education management authority has been fully transferred from the central to the provincial and district government. District education expenditure has grown rapidly both in terms of level and as a share of national education expenditure. The amount of district education expenditure has increased from Rp. 26 trillion in 2001 to 52 trillion in 2006 and they constitute 50 percent of the total national education public expenditures in 2006. This review of district education expenditures is one of the outputs of a larger set of analytical and design activities that will prepare the ground for System Improvement through Sector Wide Approaches (SISWA) Program in basic education. In 2006, 56 percent of education expenditure was spent at the sub-national level. District governments are the main spenders, accounting for 51 percent of total spending...

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for West Bank & Gaza. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes for Accounting and Auditing (ROSC A&A) is a part of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) joint initiative to review countries use of 12 internationally recognized standards/codes related to economic stability and private and financial sector development, including evaluating the country's accounting and auditing practices based on internationally recognized benchmarks and, based on that review, to make policy recommendations to help it bridge the gaps between current practices and those considered adequate. ROSC policy recommendations are intended to help strengthen a country's financial architecture, attract more foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment, and mobilize domestic savings, which, in turn, would allow for pension savings. In addition, improved financial reporting allows investors to better evaluate corporate prospects and make informed investment and voting decisions, which results in a lower cost of capital and a better allocation of capital and resources. Financial reporting is also the bedrock of corporate governance...

In September 2014, the Group of Twenty (G20) Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) requested the World Bank Group to undertake a survey in the G20 countries on the issue of commercial banks’ actions to de-risk their operations, specifically in relation to non-bank international remittance service providers or, as they are alternatively referred to throughout this report, money transfer operators (MTOs). The objective of the survey was to assess the status of the de-risking phenomenon in the G20 countries, and to collect evidence from which conclusions on the main drivers and the impact for the MTO market could be drawn. The key findings of this survey and the relative recommendations on potential actions are provided in this report to assist the G20 governments, standard setting bodies, private sector entities and the other relevant stakeholders in the financial sector on future discussions on this topic. In addition to working with the G20 on de-risking in the remittance market, the World Bank Group collaborated with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) to conduct a global survey on access to foreign correspondent banking relationships. This survey is focused on banking authorities...

In April 2014, the Government of Benin launched the entreprenant status, a simplified and free legal regime offered to small informal businesses to enter the formal economy. This paper presents the short-term results of a randomized impact evaluation testing three different versions of the entreprenant status on business registration decisions, each version including incremental incentives to registration: (i) information on the new legal status and its benefits, (ii) business training, counseling services, and support to open a bank account, (iii) tax mediation services. The study included 3,600 informal businesses operating with a fixed location in Cotonou, Benin, which were randomly allocated between three treatment groups and one control group. One year after the program launch, all versions of the program had significant impact on formalization rates. The impact was 9.1 percentage points in the first treatment group; 13 percentage points in the second group; and 15.8 percentage points in the last group. The program had a higher impact on male business owners...