South Asia-Indicators and Analysis of the Commercial Banking Sector;

Getting Finance in South Asia 2009: Indicators and Analysis of the Commercial Banking Sector;

On January 27th, 2009, the World Bank in association with the Info Shop, presented an event and panel discussion in honor of the new book by Kiatchai Sophastienphong and Anoma Kulathunga, entitled Getting Finance in South Asia 2009: Indicators and Analysis of the Commercial Banking Sector . This new volume of literature, accompanied by a CD-ROM, has provided indicators about the commercial banking sector in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Additionally, the book analyzed data in area such as access to finance, performance and efficiency, financial stability, capital market development, marketing concentration and competiveness and corporate governance.

Event Chair Ernesto May opened the event by commenting on the importance of this volume in relation to the current world financial crisis as a vehicle for better understanding the health of financial sectors within these countries and the region as a whole. Next, author Kiatchai Sophastienphong presented on the objectives, background, and findings of the study. Sophastienphong commented that the study actually began in 2002 as a stop-gap measure; however, the project has evolved ever since. He also explained that concerning the next edition, the team plans to expand their data collection to include Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives. Co-author Anoma Kulathinga then presented on the methodology concerning data collection and how the information was divided into six separate dimensions.