Barth, Caprio, and Levine.

• Position: Information on international commercial bank regulation and ownership practices - Brief Article

Barth, Caprio, and Levine collect cross-country data on commercial bank regulation and ownership in more than 60 countries and evaluate the links between their different regulatory/ownership practices and financial sector performance and banking system stability. They find substantial variation across countries in three areas: regulatory restrictions on the ability of commercial banks to engage in securities, insurance, and real estate activities; the mixing of banking and commerce, both in terms of regulations on commercial banks owning nonfinancial firms and vice versa; and the degree of state ownership of commercial banks. Overall, they find that imposing...