About

	A well-functioning financial sector is essential for private sector-led growth, the most important driver of poverty reduction.
	Financial crises burden countries with crippling costs, hinder development, and increase poverty.
	A well-functioning financial sector provides the poor with access to credit and other financial services.

	Building a firm foundation for financial services, including the legal and judicial environment, accounting practices, regulation and supervision;
	Strengthening banking systems;
	Fostering the diversity of the financial system and developing capital markets, which improve the allocation of capital and act as "spare tires" when banking crises occur; and
	Improving access by the poor and SMEs to financial services.

The World Bank's activities in the financial sector are governed by the Financial Sector Board, an executive committee with representation from each of the Regional Vice Presidencies and each of the departments of the Financial Sector Vice Presidency as well as our sister organization, the International Finance Corporation. The Vice President of Financial Sector is Cesare Calari.
Marilou Uy is Chair of the Financial Sector Board.

The centerpiece of the Bank’ s program of strengthening financial systems in non-crisis countries is the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), which is being implemented jointly with the IMF

Three specialist financial units support the work of our Regional colleagues by initiating, updating, and disseminating the development of strategy and policy formulation in the financial sector:

Financial Sector Operations and Policy consists of four business groups (Banking and Financial Restructuring; Contractual Savings and Insurance; Capital Markets; Technology, Financial Infrastructure and Access to Finance); a small team dealing with cross-cutting issues; the Learning Program for the Financial Sector Family; and the Financial Sector Knowledge and Information Service (FSKIS, also known as the Help Desk). OPD provides highly specialized financial sector skills and policy advice to the regions and to external clients, and it contributes staffing for Partnership and Financial Integrity activities.

Global Partnerships handles the Financial Sector's overall program and interaction with international fora, including relevant standard setting bodies as a part of the Bank's involvement in International Financial Architecture (IFA) initiatives. This unit is also responsible for the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a critical part of the Bank's program of strengthening financial systems in non-crisis countries. The program is being implemented jointly with the IMF .

Financial Market Integrity. The international community has requested the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to intensify their efforts to promote financial system integrity with an emphasis on building country capacity in Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing for Terrorism. We are increasing efforts to diagnose weaknesses in client financial systems as well as provide leadership in the provision of technical assistance to vulnerable countries. This unit brings together all of these efforts through its responsibility for a Bank-wide program an related annual budget.