In Asia, commercial banks are already playing an important role in the corporate bond market as issuers, underwriters, investors, and guarantors. This reflects banks' dominance of their financial markets, their high reputation, and the informational advantages they enjoy. Thus, banks should be...

Since the Asian financial crisis, strong and increasingly prevalent views have emerged thatbanks are no more functional and that economic development should rely on capital markets. Suchviews claim that the Asian crisis was caused by heavy dependence of firms' investment on bank loansand that...