The 2013 Global Financial Development Report reflects the efforts of a broad and diverse group of experts both inside and outside the World Bank. The report was cosponsored by the World Bank’s Financial and Private Sector Development Vice Presidency (FPD) and the Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC). It reflects inputs from World Bank Group staff across a range of units, including all the regional vice presidencies, the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, and External Affairs, as well as staff of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The goal of this inaugural Global Financial Development Report is to contribute to the evolving debate on the role of the state in the financial sector, highlighted from the perspective of development. The report is aimed at a broad range of stakeholders, including governments, international financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, academics, private sector participants, donors, and the wider development community.

The report offers policy advice based on research and lessons from operational work.  On September 15, 2008, the failure of the U.S. investment banking giant Lehman Brothers marked the onset of the largest global economic meltdown since the Great Depression. The aftershocks have severely affected the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. The crisis triggered policy steps and reforms designed to contain the crisis and to prevent a repetition of these events. Four years later, with banking woes ongoing in various parts of the world (most notably in the euro area), it is a good time to evaluate these reforms and their likely contribution to long-run financial development. The crisis experience is thus an important part of the motivation for this inaugural Global Financial Development Report. The crisis has prompted many people to reassess various official interventions in financial systems, from regulation and supervision of financial institutions and markets to competition policy, to state guarantees and state ownership of banks, and to enhancements in financial infrastructure.