In response to systemic banking sector problems, many member countries of the International Monetary Fund have restructured their banking systems in the last two decades and others are doing so now or may need to do so in the near future. Because governments typically bear a major share of the heavy burden of financially restructuring banking systems, the budget and its medium-term sustainability are also affected. The IMF, with its near-global membership, has thus a vital interest in ensuring sound banking systems. While immediate responsibility for keeping individual banks sound lies, national authorities will typically need to take the lead in restoring soundness to their banking system. Well-coordinated advice and support from the international institutions can thus represent a big contribution to country efforts to address systemic banking problems.
This book examines from a global and macroeconomic perspective systemic bank restructuring but it also emphasizes that systemic bank restructuring requires detailed, micro-level, restructuring of individual banks.