Financial Sector Assessment a handbook, Chapter 4 Assessing Financial Structure and Financial Development, imf and World Bank, August 2005

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• Quantitative benchmarking of the size, depth, cost and price efficiency, and the 
penetration (breadth) of financial intermediaries and markets, using internation-
ally comparable data (section 4.2)
• Reviews of legal, informational, and transaction technology infrastructures (sec-
tion 4.3)
• Sectoral development reviews, providing a more in-depth assessment of service 
provision, structure, and regulation (Sectors covered will normally include com-
mercial banking and nearbanking, insurance, and securities sectors and may also 
include some or all of the collective savings institutions and of the financial aspects 
of public pension funds, specialized development intermediaries, mortgage finance, 
and microfinance. Those sectors need to refer to the functioning both of the 
industry [financial services providers] itself and of the regulatory apparatus [section 
4.4].)
• Demand-side reviews of access to, and use of, financial services by households, 
microenterprises, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and large enterprises (sec-
tion 4.5) 
• Reviews of selected additional cross-cutting aspects of the policy environment (for 
example, distorting taxation and subsidization of financial intermediation) and of 
implications for competition of cross-sectoral ownership structures (Those reviews 
also may mention missing product issues, thus focusing on whether key financial 
products—such as leasing, factoring, and venture capital—are available and iden-
tifying the reasons for their absence [see section 4.6].)
Phase 2: Analytical and Reporting Phases
The relative importance of the components of the information-gathering phase and the 
scope of their analysis will vary according to country circumstances. This wide-ranging 
scope of information presents a challenge to assessors who must, in the analytical and 
reporting phases, synthesize the information to identify the major axes of needed policy 
reform and of infrastructural strengthening for stability and development. Segments of the 
financial system that are already active, but for which the benchmarking exercise suggests 
shortcomings, will deserve more-detailed attention. For segments that are missing or are 
not very developed, the discussion of needed policies can be confined to the level of broad 
strategy. How those components can be integrated into a policy framework is discussed 
in section 4.7.