The International Monetary Fund, IMF, Working Paper on bank ownership presents recent trends in bank ownership across countries and summarises the evidence regarding the implications of government's bank ownership. The IMF Working Paper states that the record on the impact of government's ownership suggests few benefits, especially for developing countries - and it is a balanced paper. It goes on to say that state ownership of banks can, in theory and I stress - in theory because the majority have failed; spare competition if state-owned banks are more efficient than private banks and push them to lower prices.