Publication: The Evolution and Impact of Bank Regulations
Date
2012-12
ISSN
Published
2012-12
Author(s)
Barth, James R.
Caprio, Gerard, Jr.
Levine, Ross
Abstract
This paper reassesses what works in
banking regulation based on the new World Bank survey
(Survey IV) of bank regulation and supervision around world.
The paper briefly presents new and official survey
information on bank regulations in more than 125 countries,
makes comparisons with earlier surveys since 1999, and
assesses the relationship between changes in bank
regulations and banking system performance. The data suggest
that many countries made capital regulations more stringent
and granted greater discretionary power to official
supervisory agencies over the past 12 years, but most
countries have not enhanced the ability and incentives of
private investors to monitor banks rigorously -- and several
have weakened such private monitoring incentives. Although
it is difficult to draw causal inferences from these data,
and while there are material cross-country differences in
the evolution of regulatory reforms, existing evidence
suggests that many countries are making counterproductive
changes to their bank regulations by not enhancing the
ability and incentives of private investors to scrutinize banks.
Citation
“Barth, James R.; Caprio, Gerard, Jr.; Levine, Ross. 2012. The Evolution and Impact of Bank Regulations. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6288. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/18455459-94f6-54bb-acc8-0399c029658f License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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