East Asian Finance

This study analyzes the key issues and constraints -- in terms of efficiency, access and safety and soundness -- faced by East Asian countries in developing their financial markets which are at different stages of development, drawing on global experience. The study takes stock of the initiatives being undertaken at the regional level to foster greater financial integration as a means of deepening and diversifying financial markets, and on the policy issues that need to be addressed at the domestic level to deepen and diversify financial markets and to actually benefit from the actions that are being taken at the regional level.

This study examines the case for and against regional financial arrangements in East Asia, describes the Chiang Mai Initiative, compares it to financial arrangements in other regions. It speaks specifically to the concerns of American, European and multilateral organizations, assessing the pros and cons for the global system of such regional financial arrangements.

Financial systems in the East Asian region are commanding worldwide attention. Japan's financial sector, with an ailing banking system in the aftermath of a bubble economy, is undergoing a "Big Bang" deregulation, liberalization, and securitization. At the same time, the rehabilitation of Southeast Asian and Korean economies in the wake of the Asian financial crisis awaits restoration of their banking sectors. The region's bank-dominated and development finance-oriented financial systems are coming into friction with global capital markets that lack adequate architecture. In this volume, researchers from ten East Asian think- tanks analyse the financial systems in their respective economies. They survey the financial sector deregulation and liberalization that took place in the midst of economic booms and they evaluate the role of the financial systems in the region's current economic misfortunes. Together, the pieces in this volume lay the groundwork for understanding how financial systems in East Asia have evolved as the economies have grown more complex and capital markets have globalized, and how these systems must adapt to move beyond today's crisis to serve the region's economies in the future.

'Business Groups in East Asia' examines some East Asian business groups and their subsequent restructuring following the Asian Crisis of 1997. This crisis affected the inter-relationships among the socio-cultural environment, the state and the market of each country quite differently.

This study examines the case for and against regional financial arrangements in East Asia, describes the Chiang Mai Initiative, compares it to financial arrangements in other regions. It speaks specifically to the concerns of American, European and multilateral organizations, assessing the pros and cons for the global system of such regional financial arrangements.

Two Crises, Different Outcomes examines East Asian policy reactions to the two major crises of the last fifteen years: the global financial crisis of 2008–9 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. The calamity of the late 1990s saw a massive meltdown concentrated in East Asia. In stark contrast, East Asia avoided the worst effects of the Lehman Brothers collapse, incurring relatively little damage when compared to the financial devastation unleashed on North America and Europe. Much had changed across the intervening decade, not least that China rather than Japan had become the locomotive of regional growth, and that the East Asian economies had taken numerous steps to buffer their financial structures and regulatory regimes. This time Asia avoided disaster; it bounced back quickly after the initial hit and has been growing in a resilient fashion ever since. The authors of this book explain how the earlier financial crisis affected Asian economies, why government reactions differed so widely during that crisis, and how Asian economies weathered the Great Recession. Drawing on a mixture of single-country expertise and comparative analysis, they conclude by assessing the long-term prospects that Asian countries will continue their recent success.

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.