Abstract
The Partnership for Advancing Reforms in the Economy (PARE) activity was launched to advance financial sector development in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH). While a broad range of financial subsectors and institutions were covered, the primary focus was on strengthening banking supervision and deposit insurance, the topics of this evaluation. The evaluation focused on the two primary areas of focus of the PARE activity: advancing systems, practices, and professional capabilities for banking supervision, and for deposit insurance. Specifically, it was charged with addressing five key questions: (1) to what extent has PARE contributed to the Banking Supervision Agencies (BSAs) abilities to move toward gradual implementation and enforcement of a regulatory framework that is compliant with Basel II/III and relevant EU Directives; (2) to what extent has PARE contributed to improving the overall capacity of the BiH deposit insurance agency and its compliance with International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) standards; (3) what were the main obstacles to implementing PARE and how did the activity address them; (4) how well was PARE's implementation coordinated/synchronized with other donors' activities aimed at helping BiH more effectively supervise and maintain the stability of the financial system in BiH; and (5) based upon the expert opinions of PARE counterparts and key stakeholders, what priority reforms in the BiH financial services sector (specifically banking) need to be addressed? This evaluation contains performance analyses of each of the five key questions arranged by findings, conclusions and recommendations. (Excerpt, modified)