Governing Finance : Cornell University Press : 9780801446450 : 0801446457 : 15 Feb 2008 : The international financial community blamed the Asian crisis of 1997?1998 on deep failures of domestic financial governance. To avoid similar crises in the future, this community adopted and promoted a set of international "best practice" standards of financial governance. The G7 asked specialized public and private sector bodies to set international standards, and tasked the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank with their global dissemination. Non-Western countries were thereby encouraged to emulate Western practices in banking and securities supervision, corporate governance, financial disclosure, and policy transparency. In Governing Finance, Andrew Walter explains why Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand?key targets and test cases of this international standards project?were placed under intense pressure to transform their domestic financial governance. Walter finds that