Publications & Documents

Decentralised finance, including crypto-asset markets and DeFi protocol activity, has been promoted as a tool to support the democratisation of finance. This report presents quantitative evidence from ASEAN economies that participation in decentralised finance markets has been largely driven by speculative forces and a fear of missing out, rather than by practical use-cases that can promote financial inclusion. Since decentralised finance today involves unregulated or uncompliant financial service provision, the complexity and the non-custodial nature of such activity (particularly DeFi protocol activity) make these practically difficult for retail participation. The report provides policy considerations and discusses other digital finance tools that could be considered as alternative catalysts for financial inclusion, particularly when it comes to MSME financing.

This paper reviews the digital tools developed by the insurance industry to improve the health and wellness of policyholders. These tools are said to offer a win-win: better health for policyholders and reduced claims for insurers. Many tools apply lessons from behavioural economics by seeking to influence policyholder behaviour and overcome short-term barriers to change. This paper identifies issues and challenges, such as data privacy and security, safety risks, data quality, overall effectiveness, and relevant policy and regulatory frameworks.

Since 2020, a series of shocks to the global economy has had significant impacts on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs and their access to finance. Most recently, significant inflationary pressures have led to tighter lending conditions, limiting the flow of finance to SMEs and acting as a barrier to investment. Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2024: An OECD Scoreboard monitors SME and entrepreneurship financing trends, conditions and policy developments in close to 50 countries. It documents a strong increase in the cost of SME financing in 2022, alongside a significant decline in SME lending. Equity finance also fell sharply in 2022, after a year of historically high growth in 2021. Women-led and minority-owned businesses, which typically find it more difficult to access venture capital financing, were affected disproportionately. Against this backdrop, the Scoreboard highlights the recent measures governments have taken to support SME access to finance, including finance for the green transition. A continued focus on diversifying financial sources and instruments will be important to meet the different needs of all types of SMEs and entrepreneurs, and enable them to act as an engine of resilient, sustainable and inclusive growth.

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the use and structure of corporate bond markets in Asia. Based on original data, it assesses the extent to which corporations, in particular smaller growth companies, use bond markets and how that has developed over time. It also examines the regulatory frameworks that govern these markets in 19 different jurisdictions. Drawing from these findings, it formulates policy considerations for facilitating growth company access to corporate bond markets.

This publication provides comprehensive data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resource flows to around 140 developing countries.  The data show each country's receipts of official development assistance as well as other official and private funds from members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, multilateral agencies and other key providers. Key development indicators are given for reference.    Cette publication fournit des données détaillées sur le volume, la provenance and les types d'aide et d'autres apports de ressources attribués à chacun d'environ 140 pays en voie de développement. Les données statistiques couvrent les apports d'aide publique au développement et les autres financements publics et privés fournis à chaque pays bénéficiaire par chacun des membres du Comité d'aide au développement de l'OCDE, par les organismes multilatéraux ainsi que par d'autres fournisseurs.  Des indicateurs socio-économiques de base sont présentés pour information.

In recent years, the Philippines has increased its commitment to climate action and its efforts to decarbonise the domestic economy. The power sector in the Philippines accounts for 58% of the country’s overall carbon emissions and will be an important driver of domestic emission reduction efforts to meet national climate and energy targets. Renewables, such as offshore wind, are expected to play a key role in the transition toward a low-carbon energy mix. With more than 17 thousand kilometres of coastline, the Philippines is estimated to have an offshore wind potential of 178 GW. However, this potential has yet to be leveraged. Alongside a changing power sector, progress on energy efficiency is needed to achieve the country’s emission reduction goals, with energy savings estimated at approximately 2% annually for the residential and commercial sectors. To deliver a clean energy transition, the Philippines requires estimated cumulative investments of over USD 300 billion between now and 2040. This report outlines key actions needed to unlock finance and investment in offshore wind power and energy efficiency in public buildings. It also provides a comprehensive overview of the progress to date and the challenges to mobilise near-term finance in those sectors, assist the Philippines transition towards a low-carbon economy, and achieve broader development goals.

As climate change increases exposure to natural disasters, countries need new solutions to mitigate risks of natural hazards. For many in Asia and the Pacific, mobilising existing resources is not enough: they need to consider a grand design of disaster risk financing strategies. Catastrophe bonds (CAT bonds) can be an effective, market-based financing tool for the region. While the global CAT bond market has grown steadily since the 1990s, it remains weakly developed in Asia and the Pacific. Its successful development there requires robust purpose-built legal frameworks; developed general bond markets, especially in local currency; appropriate capacity building; and data-driven pricing models. This report explores each of these conditions along with policy suggestions for fostering them, and discusses the development of multi-country CAT bonds in Asia and the Pacific.