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Periodic Essay
Credit bureaus in Asia
Rising personal income levels and increasingly competitive lending markets have led to rapidly growing consumer credit in Asian economies during the past decade. However, in many cases this expansion of credit outstripped financial institutions ability to manage the associated increase in credit risk. The rising number of credit card defaults and subsequent personal bankruptcies in economies including South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the early- to mid-2000s demonstrated the need for Asian lending institutions to employ more robust credit risk management tools. Credit bureaus, which ...
Periodic Essay
Priority sector lending in Asia
This Asia Focus discusses Asia?s experience with priority sector lending, reviews the current state-level priority sector lending policies in several Asian economies, assesses the implications for the respective domestic banking systems, and examines potential alternative mechanisms to encourage lending to priority sectors.
Periodic Essay
Shadow banking in China: expanding scale, evolving structure
This Asia Focus provides an overview of shadow banking activities in China, their close ties with banks, reasons behind their rapid rise, the range of participants and products, and regulatory issues.
Periodic Essay
Financial system reform in Thailand
In 2004 Thailand began to implement the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP), a long-term reform program aimed at creating a more efficient, transparent, and internationally competitive financial sector that can serve a larger proportion of the Thai population. With the first phase of the FSMP completed in 2009, Thailand announced that a second phase of financial sector reforms will begin in 2010. This Asia Focus report provides an overview of the FSMPs development, highlights key reform measures completed under Phase I, and describes measures proposed under Phase II and some of the challenges ...
Periodic Essay
Hong Kongs role in the movement toward a more integrated greater Chinese marketplace
This Asia Focus evaluates Hong Kongs role in the changing economic and financial connections between Mainland China and Taiwan.
Periodic Essay
China's banking sector
Periodic Essay
Japan's cross-shareholding legacy: the financial impact on banks
Japanese banks' financial results for the Fiscal Year Ending (FYE) March 2009 marked their worst performance in recent years. Although soaring loan loss charges contributed to the banks' weak performances, losses on equity securities were also a key driver. These losses have drawn renewed attention to the practice of Japanese banks owning stock in the companies to which they lend through so-called cross-shareholdings, and the market risk resulting from these holdings. This Asia Focus provides a brief background on the development of cross-shareholding. The report also examines some of the ...
Periodic Essay
Asian banking in challenging financial times
On June 25, 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco held a symposium entitled Asian Banking in Challenging Financial Times. The symposium was part of the Country Analysis Units Asia Program, which aims to share information on issues and developments in Asian financial sectors with business and community leaders in the 12th Federal Reserve District and more broadly. This Asia Focus provides a brief summary report on the discussions held at that symposium.
Periodic Essay
The Importance of Wealth is Growing
Periodic Essay
Reflections: Place Matters
Today, I would like to share some reflections on place and why it matters when working toward expanding economic opportunity and inclusion. A body of research has shown that economic opportunity is tied not only to individual circumstances but also to place. Upward mobility – the probability that a child will be better off economically than his or her parents – is dependent not only on the family’s characteristics but also on neighborhood characteristics such as neighborhood income, the quality of schools, access to social services, and racial integration.