Related items
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Corporate Governance and DevelopmentThe literature shows that good corporate governance generally pays for firms, for markets, and for countries. It is associated with a lower cost of capital, higher returns on equity, greater efficiency, and more favorable treatment of all stakeholders, although the direction of causality is not always clear. The law and finance literature has documented the important role of institutions aimed at contractual and legal enforcement, including corporate governance, across countries. Using firm level data, researchers have documented relationships between countries corporate governance frameworks on the one hand and performance, valuation, the cost of capital, and access to external financing on the other. Given the benefits of good corporate governance, firms and countries should voluntarily reform more. Resistance by entrenched owners and managers at the firm level and political economy factors at the level of markets and countries partly explain why they do not.
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Financial Development in Asia : Beyond Aggregate IndicatorsThis paper documents the major trends in
 financial development in Asia since the early 1990s and the
 spillovers to firms. It compares Asia with advanced and
 emerging countries and uses both aggregate and disaggregate
 indicators. Financial systems in Asia remain less developed
 than in advanced countries but more developed than in
 Eastern Europe and Latin America. Bond and stock markets
 play a larger role and institutional investors have gained
 importance. Nonetheless, capital-raising activity has not
 expanded. A few large companies capture most of the
 issuances. Many secondary markets remain illiquid. The
 public sector captures a significant share of bond markets.
 The largest advancements in Asia occurred in China and
 India. But still in these countries, few large companies use
 capital markets to expand and grow, becoming much larger
 than nonuser firms. In sum, Asia's financial systems
 remain less developed than aggregate measures suggest, with
 few spillovers to many firms.
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Belarus : Financial Sector AssessmentThe Financial System Assessment (FSA) is
 based on the work of the joint International Monetary Fund
 (IMF)-World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)
 updates that visited Belarus from September 17, 2007 to
 September 30, 2008. The principal objective of the FSAP
 update was to assist the authorities in evaluating progress,
 assessing potential vulnerabilities of the financial system,
 and determining future challenges. The IMF and the World
 Bank, an aide-memoire, technical notes on a detailed
 assessment of compliance with Basel Core Principles (BCP)
 principles of Banking supervision, summary assessment of
 compliance with the International Organization of Securities
 Commissions (IOSCO) principles, and access to finance, and
 background notes on stress-testing and the insurance sector
 have been submitted to the authorities. Overall, the
 supervisory framework for banks has significantly improved
 since the 2004 FSAP, though concerns remain in some crucial
 dimensions. The new Banking code was passed in 2006, and
 secondary legislation is updated on a regular basis. While
 the majority of recommendations made by the 2004 BCP
 assessment have been adopted or are in process of
 implementation, the independence of the National Bank of
 Republic of Belarus (NBRB) Board and bank supervisory
 processes continue to pose operational and reputation risks.
 As well, the capital adequacy framework needs substantial
 improvement to more accurately reflect the structure of the
 banking sector. Supervisory actions could be significantly
 enhanced by imposing adequate corporate governance
 requirements for banks.