In recent years, a number of structural developments have had a significant influence on thefunctioning of financial markets. The most important of these developments are the introduction of theeuro, the spread of electronic trading, shifts in the constellation and behaviour of market...

This volume is a collection of the speeches, presentations and papers from a conference on "The International Financial Crisis and Policy Challenges in Asia and the Pacific". The event was co-hosted by the People's Bank of China (PBC) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to mark the...

We explore the motivations for borrowers to raise foreign currency debt and swap the proceeds into local currency, rather than borrowing the local currency directly. The growing, and in some markets large, volume of such opportunistic swap-covered borrowing, suggests that it can be a...

The BIS has revised its debt securities statistics to enhance their comparability across different markets. International issues have been redefined as debt securities issued outside the market where the borrower resides, and statistics combining international and domestic issues are being...

Since its launch in September 2006, the Asian Research Programme has focused on policy-oriented studies for central banks and supervisory authorities in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the programme, the BIS Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific has co-organised a series of conferences,...

Emerging and mature financial markets are more integrated today than at any time since the First World War. Net capital flows to emerging markets have yet to return to the levels of the mid-1990s and remain significantly below those reached a century ago. However, cross-border flows provide an...