It was during this time that the conference expanded to include bankers as well as regulators and academics. During the 1990s, the topics have taken on more of an international flavor and focused on the implications of the changing financial environment. Today the Bank Structure Conference is generally acknowledged to be the nation's leading forum for discussing public policy issues facing the financial industry. For all of us in this room, the Asia crisis was one of the major defining events that has shaped the economic and financial environment in which we work. Clearly, the issue of global financial crises is one that will require both regulators and practitioners to work together closely in order to develop effective policy.
Most crises are unexpected, and it appears that the Asia crisis falls into that category.
Not all would agree, but the Asia crisis and its worldwide repercussions did seem to take the world by surprise. For example, bond spreads between emerging market debt and U.S. Treasury securities actually fell between the middle of 1995 and July 1997. In some ways, the Asia crisis worked its way into our collective consciousness with more of a whimper than a bang. The news reports on July 3 indicating that the Bank of Thailand would allow the baht to float were an early indication of future problems. But the articles were far from front-page news.