Weathering financial crises: bond markets in Asia and the Pacific

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) jointly organised a high-level seminar on "The development of regional capital markets" in Yokohama, Japan, on 21-22 November 2011. The seminar brought together senior officials of 12 central banks in Asia and the Pacific, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Mexico, the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as an academic and a private sector participant. Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of the BOJ and Chair of the Asian Consultative Council of the BIS, and Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the BIS, delivered welcoming remarks. The seminar consisted of five sessions on (1) development of domestic bond markets; (2) development of off-shore bond markets; (3) credit derivatives and structured finance in Asia and the Pacific; (4) credit rating agencies; and (5) market liquidity. It concluded with a panel discussion on the impact of capital flows on bond market development in Asia. This volume is a collection of the welcoming remarks, a paper based on the background note for the seminar, a paper on domestic bond markets in emerging market economies, and a paper on local currency bond markets and the Asian Bond Fund 2 Initiative. The last paper served as a basis for the panel discussion by Jaime Caruana at the seminar.