International financial architecture
Seen through the lense of economic crisis: achievements and numerous challenges - Working Paper #250
This paper looks at the process of international financial and monetary reform from the moment of the crisis in Asia until the start of 2010 in terms of the basic objectives which international financial architecture should meet. Those objectives are essentially the following: (i) to regulate the financial and capital markets in all countries, as well as crossborder transactions, in order to avoid the excessive risk accumulation which has caused frequent, costly crises, both in developing as well as in developed countries; (ii) to offer emergency financing during crises, especially to ensure liquidity, complementing the functions of the central banks which act as lenders of last resort at a national level; (iii) to provide adequate mechanisms at an international level to manage problems of excessive leverage; to guarantee the consistency of national economic policies with the stability of the world economy system, and to avoid the macroeconomic policies of some countries having adverse effects on others; and (v) to guarantee an international monetary system which contributes to the stability of the international economy and is seen as fair by all parties. The Monterrey Consensus, approved by the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in 2002, might come closest to the definition of those goals although it does not include any of them explicitly (especially not the last one).
About the Authors
Stephany Griffith-Jones
Financial Markets Program Director
Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)
Stephany Griffith-Jones is an economist specialising in international finance and development, with emphasis on reform of the international and national financial system, especially in relation to financial regulation and global governance. She is Financial Markets Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University. Previously she was Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University. She was Director of International Finance at the Commonwealth Secretariat and worked at UN DESA and ECLAC. She was senior consultant to governments in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa and many international agencies, including the World Bank, the IADB, the European Commission, UNDP and UNCTAD. She was a member of the Warwick Commission on financial regulation. She currently is theme leader on finance in the ESRC /DFID growth programme for LICs, especially African ones. She has published over 20 books and many scholarly and journalistic articles. Her books include Time for the Visible Hand, Lessons from the 2008 crisis, edited jointly with José Antonio Ocampo and Joseph Stiglitz.
José Antonio Ocampo
Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University and former Minister of Finance of Colombia
Columbia University
Jose Antonio Ocampo is a Professor of Professional Practice in the School of International and Public Affairs and former Minister of Finance of Colombia. He is also a Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. Prior to his appointment at Columbia, Professor Ocampo served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and head of UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and has held a number of high-level posts in the Government of Colombia, including Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Director of the National Planning Department, and Minister of Agriculture . Professor Ocampo is author or editor of over 30 books and has published over 200 scholarly articles on macroeconomic theory and policy, international financial issues, economic development, international trade, and Colombian and Latin American economic history.
Publication Information
| Type | Working Paper |
| Program | Financial Markets Reform |
| Posted | 08/03/10 |
| Download | 510kb pdf |
| # Pages | 46 |