Introduction

Abstract

The frequency of crises in emerging markets in recent years has set in motion new initiatives to reform the global economy. The establishment of the Financial Stability Forum1 (FSF) in February 1999 by the G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors was an initiative in response to the East Asian financial crisis and reflects a broad consensus reached by them about the importance of co-ordinating globally certain aspects of domestic financial and regulatory policy and institutions, under the rubric of Standards and Codes (S&C).2 Recent experience has demonstrated that, as developing countries integrate themselves into the global economy, their national economic and financial policies become a matter of greater concern to other members of the international ‘club’, who want reassurance that everyone is playing by broadly the same rules, or at least is not exposing the ‘club’ to unreasonablerisks.