After five years, it's useful to think back and recall the motivations for establishing this program in the first place. It goes without saying that the economy works better when a country's financial services sector is as sound and as efficient as possible. And the importance of promoting soundness and efficiency was certainly highlighted by the events of the late 1990s.
Five years ago, the global economy was emerging from the Asian and Russian financial crises, and the near-collapse of Long-Term Capital Management. During these events, we saw that financial markets are a key channel through which crises can spread. And among the countries most affected, we saw that one common element was a weak banking system.