Finance & Private Sector Development

Featured

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  Designing Better Green Finance: Insights for the Next Generation of Sustainable Investment

  Policy Research Talk, November 26, 2024

  Climate finance is essential for achieving the Paris Agreement's goals, but effectively scaling up investments requires understanding how financial markets interact with these regulations and addressing barriers like greenwashing and misaligned incentives. In this Policy Research Talk, Federica Zeni will highlight new research insights that can help global stakeholders design better regulatory and financial mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable investments.

  Event Information |  More About Federica Zeni
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  Access to Finance for Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises in Lao PDR

  Technical Note, September 2024

  This technical note examines the state of access to and use of financial services for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Lao PDR. Based on extensive interviews with key private and public stakeholders, data collection efforts, and desk reviews of existing reports, laws, regulations, and policies, it provides an overview of the current status of financial inclusion for MSMEs and the enabling environment for MSME finance.
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  The Global Findex, Financial Inclusion & Resilience

  Policy Research Talk, November 15, 2022

  The COVID-19 pandemic increased digital adoption worldwide, as people sought alternative ways to address daily needs without face-to-face contact. Results from the latest Global Findex survey—conducted in 2021 in 123 countries with more than 125,000 respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic—offer insights into how digitalization of payments contributed to increases in financial inclusion. In this Policy Research Talk, World Bank Lead Economist and Global Findex founder Leora Klapper will discuss the latest Global Findex findings, how technology has expanded access to financial services, the opportunities to close the remaining gaps, and the areas that countries need to focus on moving ahead.

  Video |  The Global Findex Database |  Event Information |  Presentation
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  The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19

  Global Database, June 2022

  Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on global access to financial services from payments to savings and borrowing. The 2021 edition, based on nationally representative surveys of over 125,000 adults in 123 economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, contains updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services and digital payments, and offers insights into the behaviors that enable financial resilience.

  The Global Findex Database 2021 |  Blog Post |  Video |  Press Release |  Download Report |  Executive Summary
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  World Development Report 2022: Finance for an Equitable Recovery

  Flagship Report, March 2022

  This report examines the central role of finance in the economic recovery from COVID-19. Based on an in-depth look at the consequences of the crisis most likely to affect low- and middle-income economies, it advocates a set of policies and measures to mitigate the interconnected economic risks stemming from the pandemic, risks that may become more acute as stimulus measures are withdrawn at both the domestic and global levels.

  World Development Report 2022 |  Launch Event |  Report Overview |  Video
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  Data from Secondary Markets: Insights and Implications for Development

  Policy Research Talk, March 22, 2022

  Since the Great Recession cross-border financial assets have grown nearly 60 percent. While cross-border bank lending has stayed relatively constant, cross-border portfolios and market-based finance have grown tremendously. In this talk, World Bank economist Alvaro Pedraza sheds light on this pressing issue with recent insights from the Colombian Stock Exchange (CSE).

  Video |  Presentation |  Event Page |  More About Alvaro Pedraza
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  World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives—Research Directions and Measuring Country Capacity

  Policy Research Talk, May 25, 2021

  In this Policy Research Talk, members of the report team illustrate the potential to combine private and public intent data to yield timelier, more granular insights to confront policy challenges, as well as research findings from data quality experiments and assessments. The team presents new data sources released in conjunction with the report.

  Event Information |  Video |  Presentation (Part 1 & 2) |  Presentation (Part 3) |  World Development 2021: Data for Better Lives