E. Ya. ARAPOVA, Candidate of Economic Sciences, MGIMO University, Russian Foreign Ministry
Keywords: ASEAN, ADB, banks, single banking space, integration, financial liberalization
Integration in the banking sector is an important component in the process of building the ASEAN Community in 2015*, primarily because most of the countries in the region today represent models of economic development driven by the banking sector.
The size of bank assets significantly exceeds the size of stock markets, and bank lending is the main source of borrowing by national enterprises. Accordingly, increasing capital mobility and lowering interest rates, which are intended to be the result of deepening integration processes in the ASEAN banking space, can provide much greater growth for national economies than other joint projects (in particular, the successfully implemented Initiative for the Development of Bond Markets in ASEAN countries).
CENTRIFUGAL TRENDS
In November 2012, Malaysia hosted the 19th ASEAN Banking Conference and the 42nd meeting of representatives of the ASEAN Banking Councils. The parties discussed the prospects of forming a single banking space. In April 2013, the 9th ASEAN Central Bank Governors ' Meeting was held in Brunei, resulting in the ASEAN-ADB (Asian Development Bank)report The Road to ASEAN Financial Integration, published with the aim of accelerating reforms in the banking sector of the region's countries. This report, which is perceived by many as a significant step towards creating an integrated banking space in the region, identified both the key problems that hinder the development of integration processes and the necessary steps that should be taken towards liberalizing and deepening integration processes in the region.
During the meetings, representatives of the ASEAN countries repeatedly stressed the need and readiness to develop an action plan for the formation of a single banking space in ASEAN (ASEAN Banking Framework). The issue of preparing ...
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