Since 1990, major banking and current crises have occurred in many countries throughout the world - including Mexico and Latin America in 1994-95, East Asia in 1997-98, and Russia and Brazil in 1998 - with large costs both to the individual countries experiencing the crises and to other nations....

This paper reviews some of the issues confronting central banks in their choice of monetary operating instruments and techniques. As a result of efforts by governments to improve efficiency in financial systems, together with developments in financial information, computation and communication...