A report that recommends a reform of the way, financial liabilities arising from private finance projects (PFPs) are treated in public accounts. It also deals with the growth in the secondary market for PFPs where investors sell on their stake in a project, in many cases once the construction period of that project has been completed.

The objective of Off-Balance Sheet Activities is to gain insights into, and propose meaningful solutions to, those issues raised by the current proliferation of off-balance sheet transactions. The book has its origins in a New York University conference that focused on this topic. Jointly undertaken by the Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research and New York University's Salomon Center for the study of Financial Institutions at the Stern School of Business, the conference brought together academic researchers and practitioners in the field of accounting and finance to address the issues with the broad-mindedness requisite of a group whose approaches to solutions are as different from each other as their respectively theoretical and applied approaches to the disciplines of finance and accounting. The essays are divided into two sections. The first covers issues surrounding OBS activities and banking and begins with a brief introduction that places the essays into context. OBS activities and the underinvestment problem, whether loan sales are really OBS, and money demand and OBS liquidity are examined in detail. Section two, which also begins with a brief introduction, focuses on issues of securitized assets and financing. A report on recognition and measurement issues in accounting for securitized assets is followed by three separate discussion essays. Other subjects covered include contract theoretic analysis of OBS financing, the use of OBS financing to circumvent financial covenant restrictions, and debt contracting and financial contracting. The latter two contributions are also followed by discussion essays. This unique collection of papers will prove to be an interesting and valuable tool for accounting and finance professionals as well as for academics involved in these fields. It will also be an important addition to public, college, and university libraries.

Investment in infrastructure is critical to economic growth, quality of life, poverty reduction, access to education, healthcare, and achieving many of the goals of a robust economy. But infrastructure is difficult for the public sector to get right. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can help; they provide more efficient procurement, focus on consumer satisfaction and life cycle maintenance, and provide new sources of investment, in particular through limited recourse debt. But PPPs present challenges of their own. This book provides a practical guide to PPPs for policy makers and strategists, showing how governments can enable and encourage PPPs, providing a step-by-step analysis of the development of PPP projects, and explaining how PPP financing works, what PPP contractual structures look like, and how PPP risk allocation works in practice. It includes specific discussion of each infrastructure sector, with a focus on the strategic and policy issues essential for successful development of infrastructure through PPPs.

Investment in infrastructure can be a driving force of the economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of shrinking fiscal space. Public-private partnerships (PPP) bring a promise of efficiency when carefully designed and managed, to avoid creating unnecessary fiscal risks. But fiscal illusions prevent an understanding the sources of fiscal risks, which arise in all infrastructure projects, and that in PPPs present specific characteristics that need to be addressed. PPP contracts are also affected by implicit fiscal risks when they are poorly designed, particularly when a government signs a PPP contract for a project with no financial sustainability. This paper reviews the advantages and inconveniences of PPPs, discusses the fiscal illusions affecting them, identifies a diversity of fiscal risks, and presents the essentials of PPP fiscal risk management.

The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the tension between large development needs in infrastructure and scarce public resources. To alleviate this tension and promote a strong and job-rich recovery from the crisis, Africa needs to mobilize more financing from and to the private sector.

The Second Edition of this best-selling introduction for practitioners uses new material and updates to describe the changing environment for project finance. Integrating recent developments in credit markets with revised insights into making project finance deals, the second edition offers a balanced view of project financing by combining legal, contractual, scheduling, and other subjects. Its emphasis on concepts and techniques makes it critical for those who want to succeed in financing large projects. With extensive cross-references and a comprehensive glossary, the Second Edition presents anew a guide to the principles and practical issues that can commonly cause difficulties in commercial and financial negotiations. - Provides a basic introduction to project finance and its relationship with other financing techniques - Describes and explains: sources of project finance; typical commercial contracts (e.g., for construction of the project and sale of its product or services) and their effects on project-finance structures; project-finance risk assessment from the points of view of lenders, investors, and other project parties; how lenders and investors evaluate the risks and returns on a project; the rôle of the public sector in public-private partnerships and other privately-financed infrastructure projects; how all these issues are dealt with in the financing agreements

This report assesses fiscal transparency practices in the United Kingdom in relation to the requirements of the IMF’s new Fiscal Transparency Code (FTC). Across all pillars evaluated in the code, the United Kingdom scores very highly when compared with other countries that have undergone an assessment. Of the 48 principles in the FTC, the United Kingdom meets 9 principles at the basic level, 10 principles at the good level, and 23 principles at the advanced level. Fiscal transparency practices are strongest in the area of fiscal reporting and resource revenue management. In four principles, the United Kingdom’s transparency practices do not currently meet basic practice.