Belize: Selected Issues

International Monetary Fund

No 2017/287, IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper highlights the stock of recent developments in Belize’s financial system. The financial system remains sizable, at 157 percent of GDP in March 2017. The importance of macrofinancial linkages justifies their continuous monitoring, not only for financial stability but also for overall macroeconomic stability. Both domestic and international banks play important roles in mobilizing savings for domestic investment and in facilitating external trade, on which the small open economy of Belize strongly depends. The financial intermediation role of offshore banks has declined in recent years. Offshore banks receive deposits in foreign currency from nonresidents, and lend to foreign investors, and domestic businesses, mostly in the real estate and tourism sectors. The Central Bank of Belize (CBB) is committed to securing financial system soundness. It conducted 5 on-site examinations in 2016, including 3 full-scope examinations for two domestic banks, and one credit union.

Keywords: ISCR; CR; bank; correspondent banking relationship; Belize; banking system; central bank; risks tolerance policy; Belizean bank; NPL ratio; banks CBR; respondent bank; UK bank; Commercial banks; Correspondent banking; Nonperforming loans; Foreign banks; Global; Caribbean (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28
Date: 2017-09-19
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=45265 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfscr:2017/287

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().