ESTUDIOS Y AN罫ISIS: DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO
Foreign Banking: Do Countries’ WTO Commitments Match Actual Practices?
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (known as the GATS) is an important new element in the international framework that affects the regulation of every WTO Member's financial sector. However, except for a limited number of country-specific case studies, no attempt has been made to compare WTO commitments to open the domestic banking sector to foreign banks with actual regulatory practice in a systematic and comprehensive manner on a cross-country basis.
Nor has much attention been devoted to systematically and comprehensively assess the degree to which WTO Members discriminate against foreign bank. This paper draws upon a new and comprehensive dataset consisting of the commitments countries made at the WTO and the regulations actually imposed on foreign banks by those countries. The dataset covers 123 WTO Members for whom there was also information available on their current regulatory regime for banking (based on the responses to a World Bank survey as discussed in Barth, Caprio, and Levine (2006)). On the basis of that data, the authors develop indices measuring the degree of openness to foreign banking based upon both commitments made and actual regulatory practice, with a view to assessing the overall extent to which countries open their borders to foreign banks more than they are legally obliged to do based upon their WTO commitments. The dataset is also used to assess the overall extent to which countries discriminate against foreign banks by regulating them less favorably than domestic banks. Although our results are still quite preliminary, they do show substantial divergences between commitments and practices. Indices of market openness and discrimination reveal wide differences among the 123 countries in the sample. The paper also identifies various factors that help explain the level of commitments that WTO Members have made.
N? ERSD-2006-11
Autores:
James R. Barth: Auburn University and Milken
Institute
Juan A. Marchetti: World Trade Organization
Daniel E. Nolle : Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Wanvimol Sawangngoenyuang: Claremont Graduate University
Fecha de redacci髇: octubre de 2006
Palabras clave
Bank regulation, banking, financial services, financial sector liberalization, foreign bank entry, GATS, trade in services, WTO.
C骴igo JEL
D78, F13, G20, G21, G28
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Declinaci髇 de responsabilidad
Este es un documento de trabajo y se refiere, por consiguiente, a un estudio en curso. Refleja las opiniones personales de funcionarios o especialistas invitados y es el resultado de trabajos de investigaci髇 profesionales. No pretende reflejar la posici髇 o las opiniones de la OMC o de sus Miembros ni la posici髇 oficial de ning鷑 funcionario. Los errores que puedan existir son responsabilidad de los autores. Pueden obtenerse ejemplares de este documento de trabajo en la Secretar韆 de la Divisi髇, en la direcci髇 siguiente: Divisi髇 de Desarrollo y Estudios Econ髆icos, Organizaci髇 Mundial del Comercio, rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Ginebra 21, Suiza. S韗vanse indicar en su solicitud el t韙ulo y el n鷐ero del documento.
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