The paper presents a review of major conceptual issues as a framework in which to conceptualize the rationales and strategies for fostering capital markets in a largely bank-based financial system. As elsewhere in the developing world, the relative underdevelopment of capital markets in...

The paper examines the recent European crisis management programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to see how the lessons of Asia were applied. Compared to the Asian programs of 1997, the European programs of 2008 were better funded and their structural conditionality more focused. Other...

Asia is a region whose financial integration has not kept pace with real integration. Asias relative financial isolation has limited its exposure to the direct fallout of the global financial crisis (though it did not prevent trade links from exerting severe contractionary impact). Does this...

The global financial crisis severely impacted Asia from late 2008 to early 2009 (Figure 1). Although the initial impact appeared limited, the region was directly hit when the crisis spread to the real sector and caused the volume of world trade to collapse. According to the latest projection by...

Since its launch in September 2006, the Asian Research Programme has focused on policy-oriented studies for central banks and supervisory authorities in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the programme, the BIS Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific has co-organised a series of conferences,...