The GATS Agreementon Financial Services: A Modest Start to Multilateral Liberalization
IMF Working Papers, May 1, 1997
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- The GATS Agreementon Financial Services: A Modest Start to Multilateral Liberalization
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Piritta Sorsa
- Published: May 1, 1997
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451969221.001
Overview and purpose
- Author: Piritta Sorsa
- Publication type: IMF Working Papers
- Publication date: May 1, 1997
- Series: Working Paper No. 1997/055
- Issue: 055
- Volume: 1997
- Pages: 57
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451969221.001
- Stock No: WPIEA0551997
- ISBN: 9781451969221
- ISSN: 1018-5941
- Summary purpose: Analyze links between multilateral (GATS) and unilateral financial liberalization; provide an overview of GATS features as they apply to banking and securities; compare GATS commitments with actual liberalization in participants’ financial sectors.
Main findings
- Comparative result:
- In many countries, multilaterally liberalized financial sector policies (under GATS) are more restrictive than the actual state of openness or development of financial sectors.
- Many emerging markets liberalized little under the GATS despite often well-developed financial markets.
- The opposite pattern occurred in some less developed developing countries (i.e., greater GATS liberalization despite less-developed markets).
- The paper focuses on participants in banking and securities within the GATS framework and compares GATS liberalization commitments with actual sectoral openness and development.
Subjects and topical coverage
- Subject areas listed:
- Banking
- Economic sectors
- Emerging and frontier financial markets
- Financial markets
- Financial regulation and supervision
- Financial sector
- Financial sector development
- Financial sector reform
- Financial services
- Keywords included (selection):
- access restriction
- broad money
- capital account
- developing country group
- economic value
- Emerging and frontier financial markets
- emerging market group
- Financial sector
- Financial sector development
- Financial sector reform
- Global
- liberalization negotiations
- market access
- market pressure
- multilateral liberalization
- unilateral liberalization
- world banking assets
- WP
Implications and analytical emphasis
- Analytical emphasis:
- The relationship between multilateral commitments (GATS) and unilateral or de facto liberalization in financial sectors.
- The potential disconnect between negotiated market access commitments and actual domestic sector openness or development.
- Policy-relevant implication:
- Multilateral liberalization commitments under GATS may not accurately reflect countries’ domestic liberalization or development levels; this has implications for assessing the scope and impact of multilateral trade-in-services negotiations on financial sector openness.
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- Example citation (as presented on the page):
- Piritta Sorsa. "The GATS Agreementon Financial Services: A Modest Start to Multilateral Liberalization", IMF Working Papers 1997, 055 (1997), accessed 9/17/2026, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451969221.001
IMF Working Paper: The GATS Agreementon Financial Services: A Modest Start to Multilateral Liberalization, Piritta Sorsa, May 1, 1997 (Working Paper No. 1997/055).
Content in this bundle
- The GATS Agreement on Financial Services -- A Modest Start on Multilateral Liberalization - WP/97/55