## The GATS Agreementon Financial Services: A Modest Start to Multilateral Liberalization

_IMF Working Papers, May 1, 1997_

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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

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### 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.

### Access and citation information
- Format examples and actions available on the landing page:
  - Download PDF (link indicated on source page)
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  - Create Citation
- 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).*

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## Content in this bundle

- **The GATS Agreement on Financial Services -- A Modest Start on Multilateral Liberalization - WP/97/55**
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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2016/12/30/the-gats-agreementon-financial-services-a-modest-start-to-multilateral-liberalization-2178_