Under growing pressure from within and outside their economies, countries around the world have recently embarked upon wide-ranging programs of financial reform. This major new Handbook provides country studies of the latest developments in financial reform in a selection of both developed and developing countries from Western Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia, written by acknowledged experts in their fields. The outcome is an up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive account of the current world-wide attempt to refashion the way in which the financial services industry (and especially the banking sector) is regulated and supervised. The contributors find that programs of reform have embraced all or most of the following elements: central bank reform; changes in the legal operating environment and market pressures for mergers; consolidation; demutualization; supervisory reform; measures such as the introduction of explicit deposit insurance schemes. This comprehensive reference work contains a wealth of up-to-date knowledge, presented in an accessible manner and with a standardized format. It will be of interest to scholars of central banking and international banking reforms as well as policymakers, legislators, practitioners and organizations from the banking world.