As the financial services industry becomes increasingly international, the more narrowly defined and historically protected national financial markets become less significant. Consequently, financial institutions must achieve a critical size in order to compete. Bank Mergers & Acquisitions analyses the major issues associated with the large wave of bank mergers and acquisitions in the 1990's. While the effects of these changes have been most pronounced in the commercial banking industry, they also have a profound impact on other financial institutions: insurance firms, investment banks, and institutional investors. Bank Mergers & Acquisitions is divided into three major sections: A general and theoretical background to the topic of bank mergers and acquisitions; the effect of bank mergers on efficiency and shareholders' wealth; and regulatory and legal issues associated with mergers of financial institutions. It brings together contributions from leading scholars and high-level practitioners in economics, finance and law.

An IMF paper reviewing the policy responses of Indonesia, Korea and Thailand to the 1997 Asian crisis, comparing the actions of these three countries with those of Malaysia and the Philippines. Although all judgements are still tentative, important lessons can be learned from the experiences of the last two years.

The "Model Law" deals with security interests in all types of tangible and intangible movable property, such as goods, receivables, bank accounts, negotiable instruments, negotiable documents,

This book's prime audience is government policy-makers. It provides a policy framework for governments to increase micro, small and medium enterprises' access to financial services?one which is based on empirical evidence from around the world. Financial sector policies in many developing countries often work against the ability of commercial financial institutions to serve this market segment, albeit, often unintentionally. The framework guides governments on how to best focus scarce resources on three things: ? developing an inclusive financial sector policy; ? building healthy financial ins