SEACEN Financial Stability Journal Volume 4 2015

The U.S./Eurozone Crisis of 2007-9 (the Crisis) was the most significant period of global financial instability in more than 70 years. While the Asia Pacific region was impacted by the Crisis, it has been eighteen years since the last regional financial crisis. Preserving the soundness and resiliency of the increasingly integrated regional banking system is essential to avoiding or containing future periods of financial instability or crisis in the region. Three articles in this issue focus on lessons learned from the Crisis related to banking system supervision. The U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas J. Curry, has provided an article on risk-based supervision. His article emphasizes that bank supervision needs to be proactive and based on a regular program of on-site examinations focused on the most significant risk areas. He describes the OCC’s continuous supervision approach and the importance of in-depth examiner evaluations of banks’ risk management capabilities. An article by SEACEN Advisers Hans Genberg and Michael Zamorski provides an overview of macroprudential policy measures and some implementation challenges. An article by Wong Nai Seng, Aloysius Lim and Wong Siang Leng of the Monetary Authority of Singapore focuses on their institution’s experience in using macroprudential policy measures to control systemic risk in the Singapore property market. A fourth article by Messrs. Ralph Fatigate, Craig D. Stone, Thomas J. Dujenski and Mike Burkhalter of Alvarez & Marsal, a global consulting firm, discusses international standards pertaining to prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, and measures that banks and regulatory authorities can take to enhance control of these risks.