ADBI/ADB Conference: 20 Years after the Asian Financial Crisis 2017 | Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) | 13 April 2017 | Tokyo , Japan

Background
Two decades after the Asian financial crisis, Asia stands strong with solid economic performance and a more resilient financial system. However, as the region embraces increasingly rapid financial liberalization and globalization, the lessons from the financial crisis may need to be updated. What are the new challenges facing the region in terms of potential crises and how should policy makers address these to maintain the region’s financial stability and dynamic growth momentum?

Understanding the determinants of the financial cycle is very important in early detection of financial stress and/or build-up of systemic risks. Often, peaks of financial cycles are associated with financial crises, and these cycles synchronize with business cycles which could have amplifying impacts on both domestic and global economies. Global capital flows and monetary policy in advanced economies have also been linked with the financial cycle in the credit and housing market.

Financial interconnectedness is the network of credit exposures, trading links, and other relationships and dependencies between financial institutions, which can be a channel for contagion. For instance, the failure of a large and highly interconnected institution can give rise to systemic risk that ripples through the entire financial system and spills over into the real economy. Moreover, a high degree of financial integration can have important implications for the conduct and effectiveness of monetary policy.

Rapid technology advances and innovation in the financial sector and market create challenges for financial authorities in striking a balance between resilience and inclusiveness of national financial systems.

After the global financial crisis of 2008-09, the reform of global financial architecture calls for further changes in the way we view financial markets, how systems should function, and how authorities should govern financial activities. How to design and implement financial reform is economically important as different types of financial systems have very different economic consequences in countries with different institutional legacies. Moreover, Asia has worked on three major areas to support its financial cooperation:

Strengthening regional economic surveillance
Establishing a regional mechanism for liquidity support and crisis management
Deepening regional capital markets—particularly through local currency bond market development
Objectives
To gather well-known scholars and experts on the international financial system and actively promote discussion on relevant issues which is expected to contribute to the theoretical and empirical literature and regional policy dialogue.

To assess and update the lessons learned from the Asian financial crisis, the progress of market and institutional reforms since the crisis, the current preparedness to deal with potential crises; and to identify areas in need of further improvement.

Speakers for 2017

Riaz Riazuddin, Director General, Monetary Policy and Research, State Bank of Pakistan
(TBC)

Emil Guliyev, Deputy Head, Budget Policy and Macroeconomic Analysis Department,
Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Daw Khin Saw Oo, Deputy Governor on Financial Stability, Central Bank of Myanmar

Noritaka Akamatsu, ADB

ADBI (TBD)

Naoyuki Yoshino, ADBI

Peter J. Morgan, ADBI

Atish Ghosh, Assistant Director, and Chief, Systemic Issues Division, IMF

Hoe Ee Khor, AMRO Chief Economist, AMRO

Nestor Espenilla, Deputy Governor,