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Despite far-reaching banking sector reforms and a prolonged period of macroeconomic stability and strong economic growth, financial intermediation in Armenia has lagged behind other transition countries, and interest rate spreads have remained higher than in most Central and Eastern European transition countries. This paper examines the determinants of interest rate spreads and margins in Armenia using a bank-level panel dataset for the period 2002 to 2006. We find that bank-specific factors, such as bank size, liquidity, and market power, as well as the market structure within which banks operate, explain a large proportion of crossbank, cross-time variation in spreads and margins. The results suggest that there is a large potential to increase cost efficiency and competition in the banking system.

Banks and Banking --- Industries: Financial Services --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- Banking --- Finance --- Financial services law & regulation --- Foreign banks --- Commercial banks --- Loans --- Capital adequacy requirements --- Banks and banking --- Banks and banking, Foreign --- Asset requirements --- Armenia, Republic of --- Interest rates

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The study shows that the global financial crisis has adversely affected Kuwait’s financial system, especially in the Investment Company (IC) sector. Stress tests indicate that, in contrast to the ICs, the banking system could broadly withstand significant shocks. The Central Bank of Kuwait's (CBK) well-designed framework for banks has proven effective in shielding the banking sector from the crisis. It shows that the enactment of the capital market law is an important step toward the creation of Certified Management Accountant (CMA). The study shows that a powerful regulatory regime is needed for the insurance sector.

Banks and Banking --- Industries: Financial Services --- Financial Risk Management --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- Financial Crises --- International Financial Markets --- Banking --- Finance --- Financial services law & regulation --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Commercial banks --- Loans --- Nonperforming loans --- Capital adequacy requirements --- Financial institutions --- Financial crises --- Asset and liability management --- Banks and banking --- Asset requirements --- Asset-liability management --- Kuwait

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The paper finds that, given New Zealand’s conservative approach in implementing the Basel II framework, New Zealand banks’ headline capital ratios underestimate their capital strength. A comparison with Canadian, UK and Australian banks highlights the impact of New Zealand’s more conservative approach. Stress tests in the paper show that four large New Zealand banks could withstand sizable stand-alone shocks to their exposure to either residential mortgages (calibrated on the Irish crisis experience) or corporate lending. However, combined shocks to both residential mortgages and corporate lending would put more pressure on the banks’ capital. Given high bank concentration and large offshore wholesale funding needs, the merits of higher minimum capital requirements for systemically important domestic banks could be considered, together with other measures to be implemented.

Banks and banking --- Bank capital --- Capital --- Agricultural banks --- Banking --- Banking industry --- Commercial banks --- Depository institutions --- Finance --- Financial institutions --- Money --- E-books --- Banks and Banking --- Finance: General --- Industries: Financial Services --- Financial Institutions and Services: General --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- General Financial Markets: Government Policy and Regulation --- Financial services law & regulation --- Capital adequacy requirements --- Residential mortgages --- Basel II --- Loans --- Financial regulation and supervision --- Nonperforming loans --- Asset requirements --- State supervision --- New Zealand

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Loan review is a process routinely used by banks to assess the current value of loan portfolios. Provisioning is a technique to translate loan review results into the balance sheet. It allows for ongoing valuation of loans. Both are core elements of credit risk management and important to prudential oversight. As illustrated in this paper, valuation feeds into indicators of overall bank soundness and key macroprudential indicators. Country practices and recent moves to more forward-looking models are surveyed. Macroeconomic linkages are highlighted, including tax treatment of provisions, variables of the monetary survey, and procyclical aspects of loan valuation systems.

Banks and Banking --- Industries: Financial Services --- Money and Monetary Policy --- Business Taxes and Subsidies --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General --- Finance --- Financial services law & regulation --- Banking --- Monetary economics --- Loans --- Nonperforming loans --- Capital adequacy requirements --- Loan classification --- Financial institutions --- Financial regulation and supervision --- Credit --- Money --- Banks and banking --- Asset requirements --- State supervision --- Czech Republic

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The seeming failure of loose monetary policy to reactivate Japan’s economy has led some observers to suggest that the usual credit channels through which monetary policy affects the real economy are blocked, and this because of a pervasive shortage of bank capital that has induced a leftward shift in the supply of bank credit: the so called credit crunch hypothesis. This paper finds support for the hypothesis in the 1997 bank data—a year during which the landscape of the Japanese financial system was changed fundamentally—but finds no, or even contrary, evidence, for most of the 1990’s.

Banks and Banking --- Money and Monetary Policy --- Industries: Financial Services --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Models with Panel Data --- Money Supply --- Credit --- Money Multipliers --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General --- Banking --- Financial services law & regulation --- Monetary economics --- Finance --- Capital adequacy requirements --- Bank credit --- Loans --- Financial regulation and supervision --- Financial institutions --- Money --- Nonperforming loans --- Banks and banking --- Asset requirements --- Japan