The World Bank Appoints Masciandaro as Consultant for Emerging Countries

AT A RESEARCH PROJECT BASED IN THE VIENNA BRANCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION, AIMING TO ESTABLISH HOW TO REGULATE THE BANKING REGULATOR IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

How to regulate the banking regulator? The World Bank has launched a pilot research project, Governance Arrangements for Financial Sector Policies, nominating as its consultant Donato Masciandaro (Department of Economics and Baffi Carefin Center). The initial time horizon of the project is one year and it will be based in the Vienna branch of the international organization – the Financial Sector Advisory Center  (FinSAC) – given that the analysis will start evaluating Emerging European and Central Asia countries.
 
Following the global financial crisis, a broad financial sector reform agenda has been pursued by international and European Union (EU) institutions, with direct and indirect impact on most Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, especially EU member states and candidate or potential candidate countries. One of the most visible initiatives in the region is the Banking Union.
 
FinSAC was established in Vienna in 2011 as a dedicated technical unit delivering financial sector reform advice and implementation assistance to client countries in the ECA region. It is part of the World Bank Finance and Markets Global Practice.  FinSAC is a regional “knowledge center” focused primarily on three broadly defined thematic areas: first, macro-prudential supervisory frameworks and crisis management; second, micro-prudential supervision and regulation including the resolution of non-performing loans; and finally bank recovery and resolution. Advisory and analytical services in these areas are provided mainly through client-specific technical assistance assignments. Technical workshops, conferences, and seminars are organized regularly and FinSAC also conducts relevant and applied research projects with corresponding outreach activities.
 
FinSAC receives frequent questions from client countries on how others organize the governance of their financial sector regulatory and supervisory functions. The Governance Arrangements for Financial Sector Policies research project will survey the current governance and oversight structures of financial sector policies/practices in ECA countries and other benchmarking countries to investigate how authorities organize macro prudential and micro prudential supervision and regulation, bank recovery and resolution, crisis management and consumer protection functions, and policy issues relevant to the governance and oversight of these functions. The findings will be used to identify good practices and ECA-specific considerations relevant for the choice of the appropriate governance structure for financial sector policy frameworks to be published later in the year.

by Ezio Renda