The regulation and supervision of banks around the world - a new database, by James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Jr. and Ross Levine.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 2588, April 2001

Bank regulation and supervision : what works best?, by James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Jr., and Ross Levine, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 2725, November 2001

Rethinking Bank Regulations: Till Angels Govern, James Barth, Gerard Caprio, and Ross Levine, World Bank, 2003.

This project includes the first comprehensive, cross-country survey of how banks are regulated and supervised, including requirements and regulatory powers regarding bank entry, ownership, capital, powers and activities, auditing, organization, liquidity, provisioning, accounting and disclosure, incentives for supervisors, deposit insurance, and disciplining powers including bank exit. The goal of this research is to draw conclusions for policy makers on key priorities in making their regulatory and supervisory framework more robust. (All of the database files are in Microsoft Excel format)

In Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern, Barth, Caprio, and Levine present an analytical framework for viewing bank regulation, describe in some detail the 2003 version of the database, use the database to investigate the impact of bank regulation on various dimensions of bank performance, look at what determines the decisions countries make on the orientation of the regulatory environment, and draw policy conclusions.
Available December 2005 from Cambridge University Press. The CD included with the book includes both the database and the indices used by the authors.

• 2007 Database (revised June 2008)
• 2003 Database by section
• 2003 Database by country
• Original Database by section
• Original Database by country

2007 Database: 
What are regulatory and supervisory practices around the world on the eve of Basel II implementation? How has bank regulation and supervision changed over the past decade? The third update of the Bank Regulation and Supervision Database helps answer these and many other questions. Data for 143 countries for 2005/6 allow comparisons across countries and with the previous two rounds.  The companion paper discusses changes in bank regulation and supervision over the past 10 years.

• 2007 database revised June 2008 (MS Excel file, 768kb)
• Bank Regulations are Changing: But For Better or Worse? revised June 2008 (pdf file, 209kb)

2003 Database by section (MS Excel files)

 2003 Database by country (MS Excel file, 30 - 150kb)

Albania Algeria Anguilla Antigua Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil British Virgin Is. Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central Africa Rep. Chad Chile

Colombia C.of Dominica Congo Costa Rica Cote d'ivoire Croatia Cyprus Czech Rep. Denmark Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eq. Guinea Estonia Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Grenada Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Honduras

Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova

Montserrat Morocco Namibia Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda St. Kitts St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa  (Western)  Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia

Seychelles Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan, China Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks & Caicos Is. Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Vanuatu Venezuela Zimbabwe

 Original Database by section (MS Excel file)

 Original Database by country ( MS Excel files, 40kb each)

Other outputs:

• The regulation and supervision of banks around the world - a new database, by James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Jr. and Ross Levine.  World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 2588, April 2001
• Bank regulation and supervision : what works best?, by James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Jr., and Ross Levine, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 2725, November 2001.
  This paper draws lessons from the data base on key regulatory issues for emerging markets with different initial conditions. Updated - December 2001 edition. (click here for paper's appendices, pdf file 362kb)