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Consumer protection and financial literacy can contribute to improved efficiency, transparency, competition, and access in retail financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and power imbalances between providers and users of financial services. Financial consumer protection has gained significance in policy debates, especially since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. This paper presents the results of a survey on consumer protection regulations in 142 countries. The findings indicate that although consumer protection legislation is in place in the majority of countries, these do not necessarily address the issues specific to financial services. There is some evidence that enforcement powers and monitoring capacity are limited in many countries, obstructing the effective implementation of the existing regulations. Furthermore, independent third party dispute resolution mechanisms are not widespread. The paper also compiles comprehensive information on laws and regulations relevant for consumer protection and discusses a number of challenges related to empirical analyses of financial consumer protection to enable cross-country comparison.

Access to Finance --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Consumer protection --- Debt Markets --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Access --- Financial Literacy

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Consumer protection and financial literacy can contribute to improved efficiency, transparency, competition, and access in retail financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and power imbalances between providers and users of financial services. Financial consumer protection has gained significance in policy debates, especially since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. This paper presents the results of a survey on consumer protection regulations in 142 countries. The findings indicate that although consumer protection legislation is in place in the majority of countries, these do not necessarily address the issues specific to financial services. There is some evidence that enforcement powers and monitoring capacity are limited in many countries, obstructing the effective implementation of the existing regulations. Furthermore, independent third party dispute resolution mechanisms are not widespread. The paper also compiles comprehensive information on laws and regulations relevant for consumer protection and discusses a number of challenges related to empirical analyses of financial consumer protection to enable cross-country comparison.

Access to Finance --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Consumer protection --- Debt Markets --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Access --- Financial Literacy

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This paper introduces a new set of financial access indicators for 139 countries across the globe and describes the results of a preliminary analysis of this data set. The new data set builds on previous work using a similar methodology. The new data set features broader country coverage and greater disaggregation by type of financial product and by type of institution supplying the product - commercial banks, specialized state run savings and development banks, banks with mutual ownership structure (such as cooperatives), and microfinance institutions. The authors use the data set to conduct a rough estimation of the number of bank accounts in the world (6.2 billion) as well as the number of banked and unbanked individuals. In developed countries, they estimate 3.2 accounts per adult and 81 percent of adults banked. By contrast, in developing countries, they estimate only 0.9 accounts per adult and 28 percent banked. In regression analysis, they find that measures of development and physical infrastructure are positively associated with the indicators of deposit account, loan, and branch penetration.

Access to Finance --- Access to financial services --- Bank accounts --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Commercial banks --- Cooperatives --- Debt Markets --- Deposit --- Deposit account --- Development banks --- E-Business --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Access --- Financial access indicators --- Financial product --- Financial products --- Financial systems --- Households --- International Bank --- Loan --- Microcredit --- Microfinance --- Microfinance institutions --- Private Sector Development --- Public funds --- Savings

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In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, there has been an increased interest in the role of small and medium enterprises in job creation and economic growth. However the lack of consistent indicators at the country level restricts extensive cross-country analyses of lending to small and medium enterprises. This paper introduces a new dataset to fill this gap in the small and medium enterprise data landscape. In addition, it provides the first set of results of analyses with this new dataset, predicting the global small and medium enterprise lending volume to be USD 10 trillion. The bulk of this volume, 70 percent, is in high-income countries. On average, small and medium enterprise loans constitute 13 percent of gross domestic product in developed countries and 3 percent in developing countries. Note that although a unique small and medium enterprise definition does not exist, differences in definitions across countries are not statistically significant in explaining the differences in small and medium enterprise lending volumes.

Access to Finance --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Credit constraints --- Debt Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial access --- Microfinance --- Regulation --- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

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Using two new datasets, the authors examine whether the presence of banks affects the profitability and outreach of microfinance institutions. They find evidence that competition matters. Greater bank penetration in the overall economy is associated with microbanks pushing toward poorer markets, as reflected in smaller average loans sizes and greater outreach to women. The evidence is particularly strong for microbanks relying on commercial funding and using traditional bilateral lending contracts (rather than the group lending methods favored by microfinance nongovernmental organizations). The analysis considers plausible alternative explanations for the correlations, including relationships that run through the nature of the regulatory environment and the structure of the banking environment; but it fails to find strong support for these alternative hypotheses.

Access to Finance --- Bank branch --- Banking system --- Banks --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Collateral --- Commercial banks --- Debt Markets --- Deposit --- Economic Theory and Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Access --- Financial depth --- Financial institutions --- Financial services --- Group lending --- International Bank --- Loan --- Loan sizes --- Low-income borrowers --- Microfinance --- Microfinance institutions --- Outreach --- Profitability --- Repayment