This paper documents the great divide in the level of financial development between the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 7 countries and the more advanced economies in transition, in particular those of Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic states. It discusses the roots of financial underdevelopment in the CIS-7 countries by examining the differentials in interest rate spreads between the CIS-7 countries and the transition economies that have achieved faster financial development. The roots of the divide are traced to weaknesses in the institutional infrastructure for financial intermediation, which lead to a combination of low depositor trust in the banking system and high credit risk. High credit risk stems mainly from the poor creditor-rights protection and weak auditing and accounting standards. Financial sector reform strategies that fail to give priority to the resolution of weaknesses in the basic financial infrastructure are unlikely to be successful in letting the CIS-7 countries bridge the great divide.
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Paper provided by International Monetary Fund in its series IMF Working Papers with number
03/205.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2001.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
Working Paper Series
rwp01-016, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
[Downloadable!]
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopezde-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2000.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
NBER Working Papers
7620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 265-301, 02.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)