Abstract
The Asian Dollar Market functions as a regional center for Eurodollars in Asia-Pacific. From its establishment in 1968, it mobilized the surplus US dollars in the region and then served the demand for capital from developing countries and national and multinational corporations in Asia. As a result, Singapore emerged as an international financial center. This chapter introduces the history of the Asian Dollar Market and analyzes factors behind the success of Singapore. It sees the emergence of Asian dollars from the hybridization of the following elements: the colonial experience of Singapore as an entrepôt for Southeast Asia under the British Empire, the independence of Singapore and the making of a nation-state with an international financial center, and the role of foreign bankers who brought the idea of the Asian Dollar Market. It pays attention to the deliberate efforts by the government of Singapore, particularly the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as a host agent to invite foreign banks and Eurodollars in Asia. The authority continuously and incrementally lifted regulations concerning foreign exchanges and introduced tax structure favorable to international capital. Then this chapter examines the evolution of the Asian Dollar Market – the Asian Bond Market – and the negotiable certificate of deposits denominated in Asian dollars. It concludes with the impact of the Asian Dollar Market on the economy of Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region and the market’s importance in the history of international finance of the twentieth century.
References
Asian Wall Street Journal (1978) Tenth anniversary report: the Asian Dollar Market. Asian Wall Street J 8–12
Attwood TM (1971, November) Singapore: the first two years of the Asian Dollar Market. Euromoney, p 52
Attwood TM (1972, September) Foreign banks and international banking. Euromoney, pp 5–7
Battilossi S, Cassis Y (2005) European banks and the American challenge: competition and cooperation in international banking under Bretton Woods. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Bhattacharya AK (1977) The Asian Dollar Market: international offshore financing. Praeger, New York/London
Bryant RC (1989) The evolution of Singapore as a financial centre. In: Sandhu KS, Wheatley P (eds) Management of success: the moulding of modern Singapore. Westview, Boulder, pp 337–372
Burn G (1999) The State, the City and the Euromarkets. Rev Int Polit Econ 6(2):225–261
Burn G (2006) The re-emergence of global finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
Burner CM (2016) Re-imagining offshore finance: market-dominant small jurisdictions in a globalizing financial world. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Cassis Y, Colier J (trans) (2006) Capitals of capital: a history of international financial centres, 1780–2005. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Effros RC (1985) Emerging financial centers: legal and institutional framework. International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Euromoney (1969, August) Far East: the Un-Asian Dollar. Euromoney, pp 29–30
Far Eastern Economic Review (1974) Asiandollars: a sign of independence. Far East Econ Rev 86(50):42–43
Ferguson N (2009) Siegmund Warburg, the City of London and the financial roots of European integration. Bus Hist 51(3):364–382
Hodjera Z (1978) The Asian Currency Market: Singapore as a regional financial center. IMF Staff Papers 25(2):221–253
Jang WN (1972, September) The growth of the Asian Dollar Market. Euromoney, pp 15–16
Josey A (1968) Lee Kuan Yew in London. D Moore, Singapore
Kim SW (2018) The Euromarket and the making of the transnational network of finance, 1959–1979. PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
Kim SW (2019, Forthcoming) “Has the Euro-Dollar a future?” The production of knowledge, contestation and authority in the Eurodollar Market, 1959–1964. In: Hoppit J et al (eds) Money and markets: essays in honour of Martin Daunton. Boydell and Brewer, Suffolk
Lee S (1979) Recent development in Asian Currency Market and Asian Bond Market. Occasional paper/technical report series Institute of Economics and Business Studies, Nanyang University No 32
Lee LK (2000) From third world to first – the Singapore story: 1965–2000. Marshall Cavendish, Singapore
Lee LK (2015) The papers of Lee Kuan Yew: speeches, interviews and dialogues, vol 5, 1969–1971. The National Archives of Singapore, Singapore
Lee SY (1971) The Asian Dollar Market in Singapore. Malayan Econ Rev 16:46–56
Lee SY (1986) Developing Asian financial centres. In: Tan, Augustine HH et al (eds) Pacific growth and financial interdependence. London: Allen and Unwin, pp 205–36, 378–81
Lessard DR (1994) Singapore as an international financial centre. In: Roberts R (ed) Offshore financial centres. Edward Elgar, Aldershot, pp 200–235
Loen TK (1971, June) Singapore: financial entrepôt for Asia. Euromoney, p 80
Ogle V (2017) Archipelago capitalism: tax havens, offshore money, and the state, 1950s–1970s. AM Hist Rev 122(5):1431–1458
Pakshong MW (1972, September) The future for international banking. Euromoney, pp 2–3
Pakshong MW (1975, June) The Asian Dollar Market now. Euromoney, pp 101–102
Palan R (2010) International financial centers: the British-Empire, city-states and commercially oriented politics. Theor Inq Law 11(1):149–176
Palan R et al (2013) Tax havens: how globalization really works. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Park YS (1982) The economics of offshore financial centers. Columbia J World Bus 17(4):31–35
Schenk CR (1998) The origins of the Eurodollar market in London, 1955–1963. Exp Econ Hist 35:221–238
Schenk CR (2010) The decline of sterling: managing the retreat of an international currency, 1945–1992. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Schenk CR (2017) Regulatory competition and complementarity in an offshore financial centre: the Asia Dollar Market in Singapore and Hong Kong 1968–86. UPIER Working Paper 17(2)
Shaxon N (2011) Treasure islands: tax havens and the men who stole the world. Bodley Head, London
Singapore International Merchant Bankers Ltd (1973) The Asian Dollar. Singapore International Merchant Bankers, Singapore
Tan CH (1982) Singapore as an international financial centre. In: Grub PD et al (eds) East Asia dimensions of international business. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, pp 29–44
Wellons PA (1977) Borrowing by developing countries on the Euro-currency market. Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris
Woo JJ (2016) Singapore as an international financial centre: history, policy and politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kim, S.W. (2019). Asian Dollar Market. In: Battilossi, S., Cassis, Y., Yago, K. (eds) Handbook of the History of Money and Currency. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0622-7_56-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0622-7_56-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0622-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0622-7
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences