Banking instability in South East Asia: causes and cures

Abstract

This article suggests that the currency crisis in South East Asia triggered off the present banking crisis. However, the banking crisis would not have happened if it had not been preceded by a deregulatory banking industry trend in the region during the previous decade. This trend allowed banks to invest in risky illiquid assets. Moreover, such investments were subsidised by deposit insurance funds. The IMF and BIS proposals to cure the banking instability in South East Asia are shown to be inadequate because they rely too much upon depositor and government monitoring rather than the need to constrain bank risk‐taking behaviour ex ante. This paper proposes a return to comprehensive banking regulation to prevent a reoccurrence of similar crises in the future.