This book analyzes the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1999. In addition to the issues of financial system restructuring, export-led recovery, crony capitalism, and competitiveness in Asian manufacturing, it examines six key Asian economies--China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. The book makes clear that there is little particularly Asian about the Asian financial crisis. The generic character of the crisis became clear during 1998, when it reached Russia, South Africa, and Brazil. The spread of the crisis reflects the rapid arrival of global capitalism in a world economy not used to the integration of the advanced and developing countries. The book makes recommendations for reform, including the formation of regional monetary bodies, the establishment of an international bankruptcy system, the democratization of international organizations, the infusion of public money to revive the financial and corporate sectors in Pacific Asia, and stronger supervision over financial institutions. The book emphasizes a mismatch in Pacific Asia between investment in physical hardware (e.g., factories and machinery) and in social software (e.g., scientific research centers and administrative and judiciary systems). In a world of growing international competitiveness, concerns over governance will weigh increasingly heavily on unreformed Asian countries. The long-term competitiveness of Asia rests on its getting its institutions right.

The increased mobility and volume of international capital flows is a striking trend in international finance. While countries worldwide have engaged in financial deregulation, nowhere is this pattern more pronounced than in East Asia, where it has affected in unanticipated ways the behavior of exchange rates, interest rates, and capital flows. In these thirteen essays, American and Asian scholars analyze the effects of financial deregulation and integration on East Asian markets. Topics covered include the roles of the United States and Japan in trading with Asian countries, macroeconomic policy implications of export-led growth in Korea and Taiwan, the effects of foreign direct investment in China, and the impact of financial liberalization in Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Demonstrating the complexity of financial deregulation and the challenges it poses for policy makers, this volume provides an excellent picture of the overall status of East Asian financial markets for scholars in international finance and Asian economic development.

Asia's demand for second-generation financial institutions and markets needs to be met in order for the region's further development to be sustained. This book provides a compelling, fact-based assessment of current practices and regulations in Asia's financial institutions and markets and carefully documents the exciting opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the region's financial systems. This book differs in design from typical treatments of financial institutions and markets because its focus is on Asia rather than using the US model (in terms of market configurations or products) as a benchmark, and its takes a contemporary and forward-looking view of financial markets. Examples of practice from Asia are used to illustrate major accepted themes in finance and financial regulation. To the extent that Asia's main economies share characteristics that are distinct, for example, in the relationship between government and the banking sector, or in aspects of corporate governance, the book will discuss the consequences for market operation and intermediation. The book's carefully structured facts and rigorously argued analysis carry important implications both for students in business and law and for professionals new to financial markets in Asia. It will change the way that Asian financial markets and institutions is taught in universities as well as provide a valuable resource for professionals working in finance in Asia.

In the late 1990s, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia experienced a series of major financial crises evinced by widespread bank insolvencies and currency depreciations, as well as sharp declines in gross domestic production. This sudden disruption of the Asian economic `miracle' astounded many observers around the world, raised questions about the stability of the international financial system and caused widespread fear that this financial crisis would spread to other countries. What has been called the Asian crisis followed a prolonged slump in Japan dating from the early 1980s and came after the Mexican currency crisis in the mid-1990s. Thus, the Asian crisis became a major policy concern at the International Monetary Fund as well as among developed countries whose cooperation in dealing with such financial crises is necessary to maintain the stability and efficiency of global financial markets. This book collects the papers and discussions delivered at an October 1998 Conference co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the International Monetary Fund to examine the causes, implications and possible solutions to the crises. The conference participants included a broad range of academic, industry, and regulatory experts representing more than thirty countries. Topics discussed included the origin of the individual crises; early warning indicators; the role played by the global financial sector in this crisis; how, given an international safety net, potential risks of moral hazard might contribute to further crises; the lessons for the international financial system to be drawn from the Asian crisis; and what the role of the International Monetary Fund might be in future rescue operations. Because the discussions of these topics include a wide diversity of critical views and opinions, the book offers a particularly rich presentation of current and evolving thinking on the causes and preventions of international banking and monetary crises. The book promises to be one of the timeliest as well as one of the most complete treatments of the Asian financial crisis and its implications for future policymaking.

This is a unique insider account of the new world of unfettered finance. The author, an Asian regulator, examines how old mindsets, market fundamentalism, loose monetary policy, carry trade, lax supervision, greed, cronyism, and financial engineering caused both the Asian crisis of the late 1990s and the current global crisis of 2008-2009. This book shows how the Japanese zero interest rate policy to fight deflation helped create the carry trade that generated bubbles in Asia whose effects brought Asian economies down. The study's main purpose is to demonstrate that global finance is so interlinked and interactive that our current tools and institutional structure to deal with critical episodes are completely outdated. The book explains how current financial policies and regulation failed to deal with a global bubble and makes recommendations on what must change.

This book provides a thorough introduction and historical overview of the principles and practices of digital currency and fintech in Asia. It covers the theory of central bank digital currency and examines regulatory aspects, economic digitalization, financial inclusion, and the role of SMEs. Selected case studies offer in-depth insights into recent fintech developments in major economies, including Australia; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; the People's Republic of China; the Republic of Korea; and Thailand. The book also makes a valuable supplement for introductory courses on finance, governance, and economics, as it appeals to a broad range of readers, including university students, academics, finance practitioners, and policy makers.

The World Bank considers financial inclusion to be an enabler for at least 7 of the 17 United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Financial inclusion, with its associated policy implications, is an important issue for ASEAN. This book examines the economic effects of financial inclusion. It explores issues surrounding measurement and impact of financial inclusion. The book looks at various, salient topics including measurement of financial inclusion, the impact of (various indicators of) financial inclusion on development outcomes and macroeconomic volatility using aggregate data, as well as the effects of financial inclusion on poverty and development outcomes using micro data.