We sometimes forget that the financial services negotiations that successfully concluded in December 1997 coincided with the financial crisis in Asia. Contrary to what some might have feared, the crisis had no impact on the negotiations: no country withdrew or wrote down the commitments it had negotiated.
Even the Asian countries most seriously affected made commitments to improve access to  1  BIS Review 73/2000  their markets for foreign financial institutions. They did so in the belief that stronger competition and greater openness would make their national financial infrastructure stronger, not weaker.