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Studies of Depression-era financial remediation have generally focused on federal deposit insurance and the provision of equity to banks by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). This paper broadens the concept of financial remediation to include other programs – RFC lending, federal guarantees of farm and home mortgages, and the elimination of interest on demand deposits – and other intermediaries – savings and loans, mutual savings banks, and life insurance companies. The benefits of remediation or the amounts potentially at risk to the government in these programs are calculated annually and allocated to the various intermediaries. The slow remediation of real estate loans (two-thirds of these intermediaries' loans) needs further study with respect to the slow economic recovery. The paper compares Depression-era remediation with efforts during the 2008–2009 crisis. Today's remediation contrasts with the 1930s in its speed, magnitude relative to GDP or private sector nonfinancial debt, the share of remediation going to nonbanks, and emphasis on securities markets.

Objective: Recently, there has been an increase in the use of cryptocurrency, decentralised finance (DeFi) applications and DeFi services in several countries. These innovations facilitate the delivery of financial services using smart contracts. DeFi encompasses all financial services that are built on public blockchains, based on open protocols and removes intermediaries from the financial intermediation process. There is significant cryptocurrency activity in Africa while DeFi developments are relatively new and unpopular in the African continent. This chapter introduces DeFi in Africa. It presents some statistics and data on DeFi in Africa. Thereafter, the potential benefits, challenges and regulatory issues associated with DeFi in Africa are presented.

Method: This study used literature reviews and external data sources to show the benefits and advantages of DeFi .

Findings: The findings show that there is low interest in DeFi in Africa. Some benefits of DeFi to African countries include increased liquidity for many small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), new opportunities to raise additional capital to fund capital-intensive activities, usher in an era of smart contracts that are negotiated bilaterally without needing an intermediary, encourage peer-to-peer trade between economic agents in several African countries, enhance the efficiency of the Pan-African Payment Settlement System and encourage more trade between individuals and corporations under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, among others.

Originality: This is the first chapter to examine DeFi in Africa.

Post-crisis policy measures in Asia have focussed on banking sector and market reform. The paper argues that in order to propel growth, banking and market reform in Asia must be undertaken with the view that they are not mutually exclusive competitive tradeoffs. Rather banks and markets must be viewed as complementary supportive pillars in a financial system. Additionally, legal and functional reform must be undertaken simultaneously. The paper proposes that a likely consequence of doing so will enable creating a four-pillared multi-dimensional growth paradigm in the region to help restore and promote growth.

This chapter is devoted to the issue of ensuring financial stability in the state. The main goal of the research is to determine the role and policy of the National (Central) Bank, which was called up, together with the Government, to ensure financial stability in the Republic of Belarus. The actions of the National Bank for the implementation of monetary policy, macroprudential regulation, and supervision are reviewed. It is noted that the regulation and supervision of banks, nonbank credit and financial organizations, the payment system, the sector of other financial intermediaries (leasing activities, microfinance activities, activities of forex companies) is carried out by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus. The main practical actions of the Government and the National Bank aimed at maintaining and ensuring financial stability is highlighted: monitoring of financial stability (goals, tasks, objects, monitoring directions are defined); creation of the Financial Stability Board (goals, objectives, representation, personal responsibility); disclosure of information on financial stability is carried out on an ongoing basis – the publication of the analytical review “Financial Stability in the Republic of Belarus.” The research provided a summary of the state of the country's financial sector and presented the achievements of the National Bank and state institutions for ensuring financial stability. The main problems affecting financial stability are highlighted: insufficient efficiency of the activities of large enterprises of the real sector of the economy; high levels of credit risk in banks; high dollarization of bank balance sheets. The directions of development of the financial market of the Republic of Belarus, contributing to ensuring financial stability are presented.

This chapter outlines the need for a sustainable financial system in the wake and aftermath of the recent financial crises. Beginning with the widely accepted definitions of the financial system and the roles of the many participants in the system, we ask whether the financial system has lived up to expectations. Of particular interest is whether the financial system has fulfilled its obligations in the area of provision of credit, liquidity, and risk-management services.

We review the Neoclassical Economics, the Institutional and the functional approaches to the design of a financial system with a view to understanding the recent lack of stability exhibited by the system. We identify the many financial innovations that have been proliferating in recent years due to advances and improvements in computer technology, valuation techniques, and financial engineering. We highlight the deleterious impact of the financialization of economies and excessive development of derivative markets. After defining financialization, we give specific examples of the nature and impact of cat-bonds, securitized subprime loans, and credit-default swaps and their role in the propagation of the recent financial crisis. Finally, we propose some courses of action to secure the global financial system.

We identify ten challenges in achieving a sustainable financial system in the future and stress the need for all stakeholders to work to put the financial world in order and to restore confidence in the financial system.

Scholars and practitioners might take into account these dimensions in their courses and their behaviors.

This approach participates to rebuild the financial system. The aim over the long term is to re-embed finance; we need to put finance with respect to both economy and society.

Arguments in this chapter are straightforward; there are things that regulators are implementing; for others, nothing has been decided yet. This chapter gives an academic perspective to help authorities to regulate banking and financial activities and products.