Preface
This is the third of a series of books that began with bank failures ( Bank Failures in the Major Trading Countries of the World, Quorum Books, 1998) and banking crises ( International Banking Crises, Quorum Books, 1999). Since 1980 more than 130 countries have experienced significant banking sector problems and crises. The large number of bank failures and crises reveals that no country, including the United States, is immune from such problems.

To some extent, the expansion of global banking and changes in financial and information technology contributed to the financial shocks in 1997 and 1998. Huge global banks and hedge funds trading in foreign exchange markets may have exacerbated the situation. BankAmerica, Citicorp, and Bankers Trust all had large trading losses in foreign exchange in 1998. Shortly thereafter, BankAmerica was acquired by Nations Bank, Citicorp and Traveler's merged, and Bankers Trust was acquired by Deutsche Bank ( Germany).

Bank failures, crises, global banking, megamergers, and changes in technology are rendering the existing methods of prudential regulation (regulations for bank safety and soundness) weakened at best, ineffective at worst. Federal bank regulators, as well as bank regulators in other countries, are 4-aware of the problems. They are in the process of evaluating new and existing tools to cope with them. One of these tools is greater reliance on market discipline, another is the use of internalcontrols-based statistical models such as Value-at-Risk, a third is subordinated debt. Beyond the tools for supervising individual banks, the global nature of banking requires cross-border supervision and international cooperation. Finally, there is the problem of drafting legislation in developing countries. These are some of the issues that are dealt with in this book. The chapters discuss the issues and some of the parameters, but there are no definitive answers about what the new financial architecture should look like. Additional research and discussion among academics, regulators, politicians, and the organizations that will be regulated is needed to resolve the issues. The resolution will be an ongoing process because change will continually present new opportunities to providers of financial services and challenges to regulators.The chapters in this book have been written by academics and bank regulators. Earlier versions of several of the chapters were presented at the annual meeting of the Financial Management Association held in Orlando, Florida, in October 1999 and at other venues.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
An extensive list of references can be found at the end of each chapter. By definition, those references are to previously published works, and they do not disclose what is going on right now. That problem is resolved by turning to the internet. Listed below are some of the major sources of information about the changes that are occurring in the world's financial system. These sources include various central banks, the Bank of International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC is included here because of the major strides it is making in regulating financial markets. Some of these sites include links to other sources of information, such as the various Federal Reserve banks which publish up-to-date articles concerning regulations and other topics.