International banking and financial fragility: the role of regulation in Brazil and Mexico, 1967–1982

The shortcomings and potential dangers of international financial flows for the health and stability of domestic banking systems in developing countries have been copiously discussed over the last decades. While the importance of capital controls and regulation as determining factors has been widely emphasised, the extent to which these policies work in episodes of financial crisis is still a matter of debate. This article examines the relationship between supervisory frameworks and banking fragility in Mexico and Brazil in the wake of the international debt crisis of 1982. It shows that the model of international banking intermediation that evolved out of the stringent capital mobility system in Brazil was considerably less vulnerable to crisis than in Mexico, which had a more lightly regulated regime. These findings provide insights into historical debates about the implications of prudential regulation and capital controls for the development and expansion of foreign finance, and whether the risks underlying international banking are necessarily inherent in the process of financial globalisation.

Debt distress to rise for corporates and EM sovereigns

Headline INTERNATIONAL: Debt distress to rise for corporates

THE RECASTING OF THE OTTOMAN PUBLIC DEBT AND THE ABOLITION OF THE CAPITULATIONS REGIME IN THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ACTION OF TURKEY LED BY MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK

The recast of the international debt contracted by the former Ottoman Empire and the overcoming of the capitulations regime that had afflicted Turkey for centuries, are two of the most relevant sectors in which the political and diplomatic action promoted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has been expressed. Extremely relevant in this regard are the different disciplines established, respectively, by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 and then by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. After the Ottoman Government defaulted in 1875, an agreement (the Decree of Muharrem) was concluded in 1881 between the Ottoman Government and representatives of its foreign and domestic creditors for the resumption of payments on Ottoman bonds, and a European control of a part of the Imperial revenues was instituted through the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt. At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was burdened by capitulations, conferring rights and privileges in favour of their subjects resident or trading in the Ottoman lands, following the policy towards European States of the Byzantine Empire. According to these capitulations, traders entering the Ottoman Empire were exempt from local prosecution, local taxation, local conscription, and the searching of their domicile. The capitulations were initially made during the Ottoman Empire’s military dominance, to entice and encourage commercial exchanges with Western merchants. However, after dominance shifted to Europe, significant economic and political advantages were granted to the European Powers by the Ottoman Empire. Both regimes, substantially maintained by the Treaty of Sèvres, were considered unacceptable by the Nationalist Movement led by Mustafa Kemal and therefore became the subject of negotiations during the Conference of Lausanne. The definitive overcoming of both of them, therefore represents one of the most evident examples of the reacquisition of the full sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey.

Directions of improvement of multinational banks’ credit activity regulations in terms of debt-type economy

Research background: Amidst deepening economic internationalization and financial globalization, multinational banks remain the most important financial intermediaries in the international debt capital market. By ensuring the cross-border movement and redistribution of credit resources, multinational banks’ credit activities lead to the accumulation of external indebtedness in the host countries. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to substantiate scientific and practical recommendations for improving multinational banks’ credit activities regulations in order to minimize their negative impact on the level of external indebtedness and the formation of the debt-type economy in the host countries. Methods: Methods of abstraction, systematization and generalization, as well as system approach have been used in our research. Findings & Value added: A hierarchical system of multinational banks’ credit activity regulation, which includes institutional-subjective (the level of multinational banks themselves), macro-regional (the level of the home country and host countries), mega- and meta-regional, and global levels have been proposed. Scientific and practical approaches to regulating multinational banks’ credit activities, which are based on the introduction of special regulatory measures by the countries with debt-type economies (transformation of external financing sources, revision of forms of credit cooperation with multinational banks, intensification of inclusion in the processes of securitization of credit relations, introduction of a system of macroprudential regulation instruments, increasing the level of international liquidity), have been developed.