Materialising the expected benefits from financial infrastructure integration: The ‘Guidelines for the Successful Regional Integration of Financial Infrastructures’

Abstract

Increasing levels of cross-border financial activities observed throughout the world, especially in the last two decades, have prompted private and public-sector entities in different countries to propose, and in many cases actually engage in, integrating among themselves some or even most of their respective financial infrastructures (FIs). Yet, several projects aimed at integrating FIs across borders have failed in providing many of the expected benefits. Other projects have been unable to become operational, despite the significant amount of time and money that has been invested in them. Very often, mistakes from one project are routinely repeated in others, even when the others are undertaken in a different world region and/or in a context that appears to be quite different or unique. This observation led the World Bank to convene an international panel of experts (the ‘G25 Panel of Experts’), who were directly involved in many initiatives to integrate FIs across borders, to provide factual and interpretive inputs for addressing the realit­ies and issues of successful regional integration. The final output of this effort is the ‘Guidelines for the Successful Regional Integration of Financial Infrastructures’ report. The report in general, and the guidelines in particular, provide a set of practical steps and actions to assist stakeholders considering the merits of regional FI integration as well as those already involved in an effort of this kind.