Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Basel II implementation and the development of Asia's financial system – experiences, challenges and regional cooperation Keynote address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the 4th SEACEN/ABAC/ABA/PECC Public-Private Dialogue for the Asia Pacific Region, Kuala Lumpur, 18 August 2008. *  *  *  It is my pleasure to be here today, to speak on the occasion of this Public-Private Dialogue organised by the SEACEN Centre in collaboration with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the Asian Bankers Association (ABA) and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) on the development of Asia's financial systems and the implementation of Basel II. The implementation of Basel II across the Asia Pacific region is occurring at a time of heightened risks, during a time in which our economies and financial systems are confronted with significant challenges and increased uncertainties. As the underpinnings of Basel II are concerned with enhancing the responsiveness to risk by banking institutions, there are enormous expectations that Basel II will stand up to the test of capturing the complexities and the more uncertain direction of risk in the current environment. There is also enormous interest in assessing the pre-emptive capabilities of the framework to anticipate the direction of risk and thus ensure the provision of adequate capital buffers for such risk. The sharing of experience on the implementation of Basel II in this region and the greater engagement between the supervisory and financial communities will provide further insights to these issues.
I am that sure my colleagues around the table would like to share their practical experiences so that we could have a better understanding of the financial market indicators suitable for emerging markets and how we as policy makers can best make use of them. Let me now pass the chair to Mr. Eli Remolona, Head of Economics for Asia and Pacific, BIS. BIS Review 64/2007  1