By Hyekyung Cho | Jointly Published by Madhyam and SOMO | December 2010
South Korea has seen a rapid financial development in the past decade in line with financial liberalization policies that the government rigorously pursued. The government’s ambition to make South Korea a financial hub in Northeast Asia supported by the self-serving financial industry pushed the financial expansion far beyond the ability of the Korean economy to deal with risks and dangers inherent in financial development.
Eventually, the Korean financial sector has become the victim of its own success, suffering ill-fated overstretch….
By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | December 24, 2012
The recent suicides by over 60 poor borrowers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh have brought the operations of microfinance institutions (MFIs) under public scrutiny. It is well documented by both print and electronic media that these debt-driven suicides were due to coercive methods of loan recovery used by commercial MFIs. The commercial MFIs operate as profit-making non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs) in India.
The majority of suicides took place in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh and as many as 17 borrowers of SKS Microfinance were among those…
By Lawrence Bategeka and Luka Okumu | Jointly Published by Madhyam and SOMO | December 2010
This study critically examines the major developments in the banking sector in Uganda over the past two decades. In particular, the study documents the outcomes of banking sector liberalization policies which were initiated since the early 1990s. It also deals with recent developments in the Ugandan banking sector in the aftermath of global financial crisis.
With a special focus on the entry of foreign banks, the study assesses the major impacts and consequences of market-led banking reforms on economy, development…
By Kavaljit Singh | Op-Ed, The Korea Times | November 10, 2010
Leaders of the G20 will meet in Seoul on Nov. 11 and 12 to discuss a myriad of issues concerning global financial stability and economic recovery. In many ways, the G20 Seoul Summit is significant because for the first time it is hosted by a non-G8 nation and one in Asia too. The two-day Seoul summit covers an expansive agenda, ranging from global safety nets to new rules on bank capital and liquidity requirements to reforming the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
By Kavaljit Singh | Journal of Regulation and Risk North Asia | Summer/Autumn 2010
In June 2010, South Korea and Indonesia announced several policy measures to regulate potentially de-stabilising capital flows which could pose a threat to their economies and financial systems. South Korea kicked off the process on 13 June when it announced a series of currency controls to protect its economy from external shocks. The new currency controls are much wider in scope than foreign exchange liquidity controls announced earlier in 2009. Indonesia quickly followed suite on 16 June when its central…
