Comparative and comparable research across countries require equivalency in data. Projects of the IBRN have their starting point with regulatory, bank-level data that are available in central banks or other supervisory agencies. Often, additional data on policy measures are needed in order to obtain comparable results. In the course of their work, IBRN participants have been involved in significant efforts to integrate and standardize data from diverse sources and are committed to making the tools and results publicly available.
Prudential Instrument Database
The instruments covered include different types of prudential regulations: capital requirements, concentration limits, interbank exposure limits, loan-to-value ratio limits, changes in reserve requirements, and countercyclical capital buffers. To construct this database, the IBRN and IMF collaboratively worked with regulatory sources in the individual countries, and extended and utilized the Global Macro Prudential Instruments (GMPI) survey which the IMF conducted in 2013, as well as other IMF sources. Stress tests, which may give incentives for banks to adjust their foreign exposures, are not covered in this project. Changes in reserve requirements are included since they are sometimes used explicitly by countries for prudential purposes, instead of as monetary policy instruments. The current version of the database covers the period between 2000 and 2023.
For an overview, see Eugenio Cerutti, Ricardo Correa, Elisabetta Fiorentino, and Esther Segalla, “Changes in Prudential Policy Instruments—A New Cross-Country Database,” International Journal of Central Banking 11, no. 2 (2017), or Eugenio Cerutti, Ricardo Correa, Linda S. Goldberg, Anni Norring, “Prudential instruments and the recent inflationary episode,” VoxEU, September 10, 2025.
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International Banking Library
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