The Asian Development Bank's May governors meeting included
sessions where bankers spoke candidly about the problems faced by
the region's financial sector.
In what became something of an exercise in self-flagellation,
Asia's leading bankers gathered in the northern Thai city of Chiang
Mai last month to thrash out what had gone wrong in the past three
years.
As the 1,000-odd bankers and delegates debated, gossiped, wheeled
and dealed in the air-conditioned comfort of the Westin Riverside
Plaza Hotel in Thailand's second city, a similar number of local
"indigenous people", as one seminar would have it, protested
peacefully outside, baffling delegates with banners written in
Thai.
Inside, the charismatic president of Thai Farmers Bank, Banthoon
Lamsam, stole the show during a series of satellite seminars to the
main governors meetings. Four bankers from across the region had
been invited to share their thoughts on "Challenges for Banks and
Financial Institutions in Asia". Fuji...
