Impact Stories

Limited access to finance is an important obstacle to economic growth and poverty reduction across Sub-Saharan Africa, where financing constraints are among the largest obstacles impeding firms’ growth. As described in the 2007 FSAP report, Namibia’s financial sector has historically been unable to serve the majority of the population effectively - namely the low income population and informal small businesses. Many low income individuals are excluded from formal banking relationships due to the very high costs of basic accounts as well as poorly adapted credit and savings services. Banking...

The Central American region has withstood the impact of the global financial crisis, with the adjustment taking place in an orderly way up to today. Ongoing financial sector integration and consolidation, aimed to help the region in taking advantage of economies of scale and promoting competition and efficiency, requires harmonization of prudential norms and financial supervision between countries. And strengthening the capacity to conduct consolidated supervision of growing of cross-border banking activities helps the region capitalize on the opportunities that integration offers. Central to...

Zambia underwent an FSAP in 2008. Stress tests performed by the FSAP team confirmed that although the country’s banking sector could withstand considerable shocks, it was prudent to put in place a strategy to prevent macroeconomic fallout from the global crisis. FIRST received a request from the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) to enhance its tools for managing financial distress and a potential systemic crisis, and approved the project worth $161,485 in August. It was the project’s objective that, at its conclusion and through the ongoing efforts of the client, the BoZ should have a sound framework for...

The Project’s objective was to strengthen the policy response of the Nepal authorities to instances of serious financial distress, thereby mitigating the negative impact of financial crisis situations on the real economy. As a result of the project, the legal powers, policies, procedures for dealing with and resolving financial crises have been reviewed and gaps were identified, including an assessment of the adequacy of financial sector safety net arrangements and resources for dealing with a crisis and an assessment of internal procedures of the Crisis Management Fund (CMF) that was set up...