The Global Credit Crisis of 2008-09 has underscored the urgency of reforming the international financial architecture. While a number of short-term reforms are already in train, this paper contemplates more ambitious reforms of the international financial architecture that might be implemented over the next ten years. It proposes routinizing the expansion of IMF quotas and the conduct of exchange rate surveillance. It contemplates an expanded role for the SDR in international transactions, which would require someone-like the IMF-to act as market maker. It considers proposals for reimposing Glass-Steagall-like restrictions on commercial and investment banking, something that will have to be coordinated internationally to be feasible. Other proposals would require banks to purchase capital insurance; here the question is who would be on the other side of the market. Again there is likely to be a role for the IMF. Then there are arguments for a new agency or institution to deal with cross-border bank insolvencies. Any such entity will require staff support, which might plausibly come from the Fund. Finally, some insist that international colleges of regulators are not enough-that it is desirable to create a World Financial Organization (WFO) with the power to sanction members whose national regulatory policies are not up to international standards. A WFO will similarly need staff support, of which the IMF would be one possible source. All this of course presupposes meaningful IMF governance reform so that the institution has the legitimacy and efficiency to assume these additional responsibilities. The paper therefore concludes with some conventional and unconventional proposals for IMF governance reform.

Kenen (economics and international finance, Princeton University) reviews the reform efforts that followed the 1994-95 Mexican crisis, and evaluates their results in the time since then. He compares the existing efforts with the more radical recommendations of the Meltzer Report, and considers the implications of his analysis for the role of the IMF. He then offers his own recommendations for further reform. c. Book News Inc.

Papers presented at a conference in London in May 1999.

Instability has become global and systemic. Strengthening international institutions and arrangements would reduce the threat of crises and allow those that do occur to be better managed. These proposals take the developing world into account.

Recoge: 1. Introduction-2. Summary of recommendations-3. Standars for crisis prevention-4. Banks and capital flows-5. Bailing in the private sector-6. What won't work-7. What the IMF should do (and what we should do about the IMF).

This unique collection of seminal articles reflects on the evolution of international finance in the 1990s, exploring the recurrence of financial crises and the resultant policy responses. The editors have brought together groundbreaking academic research addressing the policy decisions made by the key players. In this way, New International Financial Architecture sheds new light on the important debate of the 1990s which started with the Mexican crisis. This authoritative two volume set will provide a great resource for academics, policymakers and private sector participants.

After an introduction on inconsistency in the international financial system, section 2 of this paper focusses on the role of financial markets in emerging economies and on the lessons from recent crises. It seeks to explain why, under current international financial arrangements, both borrowers in emerging markets and lenders in industrial countries have had a strong incentive to resort to government guarantees as a way of encouraging capital flows. It then considers how such behaviour worked to increase the moral hazard inherent in the system. Section 3 sets out broad outlines of proposals for a comprehensive, market-based approach to reform of the international financial architecture. It lays out several broad avenues for change in emerging-market countries: financial sector strengthening, improvements in macroeconomic policy implementation, associated changes in exchange rate regimes & monetary policy targets, and a consistent program of financial market deepening & capital account liberalization. It also considers the role that governments & private-sector lenders in industrial countries can play in strengthening the international financial system and in mitigating the effects of crises. Section 4 discusses a set of reforms for the International Monetary Fund & other international financial institutions that would reinforce the proposals in section 3. It also discusses how possible changes in arrangements for private-sector involvement in the prevention & resolution of financial crises fits into a comprehensive market-based approach to reform of the international financial architecture. The final section summarizes the main conclusions.

This paper briefly surveys the progress made in various areas of reform of the international financial architecture since the outbreak of the East Asian crisis, and explains the principal technical and political obstacles encountered in carrying out fundamental changes capable of dealing with global and systemic instability. It ends with a brief discussion of what developing countries could do at the global, national or regional level to establish defence mechanisms against financial instability and contagion.

This book deals with the recent problems arising from the growth of financial globalization (i.e. the growing integration of capital markets across national borders), as reflected in the current global financial crisis, and the need to improve what has come to be known as the international financial architecture.

The Group of Seven Industrialized Countries, G7 developed a new doctrine of international supervision and regulation of financial markets. The G7 instructed international financial institution such as the IMF, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank and the Multilateral Development Banks to tighten their supervision and regulation of international finance. This volume examines this doctrine sometimes known as the 'New Architecture of the International Financial System' or IFA. Strengthening of the international financial system never ends and there have been recurring vulnerabilities in international financial architecture. The book examines current practices and its consequences and how the IFA has evolved and its alternatives. The book draws upon academic knowledge, practitioner techniques in financial risk management and official doctrine to analyze how investors, creditors and debts function within the new architecture.