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This paper presents evidence on implementation of the World Bank Group and Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative "Principles for Public Credit Guarantee Schemes for Small and Medium Enterprises". The evidence is based on a self-assessment of 60 schemes in 54 countries. Overall, the results show a fairly decent level of implementation of the Principles, especially in the areas of legal and regulatory framework, mandate and eligibility rules, and claim management process. The results also show several gaps where reform and actions may be warranted, namely identification and accountability of funding sources, corporate governance and risk management, prudential regulatory recognition of guarantees, program/product calibration, and reporting and disclosure.

Financial Institutions --- Loan Guarantees

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Economic activity depends on a flourishing biodiversity and intact environment through the provision of ecosystem services. The depletion of these services poses physical risks for the financial sector. This paper attempts to measure the potential exposure of the banking systems in 20 emerging markets to nature loss through their lending portfolio. The results show that banks in emerging markets allocate around half of their credit portfolio to firms whose business processes are highly or very highly dependent on one or more ecosystem services. The results also provide initial and preliminary evidence that points to a negative correlation between country income level and dependency on ecosystem services. Accounting for indirect dependencies on ecosystem services via supply chains and trade could change this observed relationship, however. Furthermore, the highest dependencies on ecosystem services across countries tend to be on climate regulation and flood and storm protection, indicating the interconnectedness of climate change and nature loss.

Biodiversity. --- Finance.

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There is increasing recognition that climate-related and environmental risks are a source of financial risks. Using publicly available data, this paper attempts a preliminary estimation of the physical and transition risks for the banking sector in a sample of economies in Latin America and the Caribbean. The results show that exposure to floods, compounded by high loan concentration in and around countries' capital cities, represents the most important source of credit risk for the banking sector. After large-scale natural disasters, banks' nonperforming loans increase by up to 1.4 percentage points in affected provinces. The results also show that banks in the region are exposed to transition risks, especially in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, due to their high lending to the agriculture sector, which is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the countries. Firms operating in transition-sensitive sectors already present signs of financial stress, especially those in the fossil fuel and agriculture sectors. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance for financial authorities in the region to advance in the integration of climate-related and environmental risks in their work.

Adaptation To Climate Change --- Banking Sector --- Climate Change --- Climate Change Impacts --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Credit Risk --- Environment --- Environmental Sustainability --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Stability --- Flood Risk --- Greenhouse Gas Emissions --- Insurance and Risk Mitigation --- Natural Disaster --- Natural Disasters --- Risk

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Theory suggests that the effect of banking market concentration on financial stability is mediated by several competing variables. Using a sample of 68 countries from 1997 to 2015, this paper proposes a unified empirical framework to test for the simultaneous presence and impact of the mediators through which concentration is expected to impact financial stability. The results indicate that the magnitude and net effect of the mediators depend upon the level of concentration. At lower levels of concentration, increasing concentration improves banking system stability via profitability. At higher levels of concentration, increasing concentration makes the banking system more fragile because of the cost of credit, diversification and the ease of monitoring. For intermediate levels, concentration has no significant effect on financial stability, as the competing moderators cancel each other out. The results suggest that an intermediate level of concentration may be optimal for welfare.

Banking Crises --- Concentration --- Deposit Insurance --- Economic Growth --- Finance And Financial Sector Development --- Inflation --- Interaction Effects --- Logit Model --- Macroeconomic Management --- Macroeconomics And Economic Growth --- Public Sector Development

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The relationship between bank competition, firm access to finance, and economic growth is a much debated topic in the economic literature and in policy circles. This paper uses a panel of 23 manufacturing sectors over 2002-10 to investigate the impact of bank competition on industry growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council economies. The results show that greater competition allows financially dependent firms to grow faster. In addition, the results show that lower restrictions on banks' permissible activities, better credit information, and greater institutional effectiveness mitigate the damaging impact of low competition. These results are robust to a variety of checks. The findings suggest that improving bank competition should be an important aspect of the financial sector development agenda in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Access to Finance --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Labor Policies --- Private Sector Development --- Social Protections and Labor