This volume of International Finance Review focuses on the Asia-Pacific financial markets. A total of 22 original papers, not published elsewhere, have been selected from a competitive field. These papers utilize a variety of methods, including theoretical, empirical and qualitative to highlight a range of issues across the region. Several papers offer combinations of these different categories and among the empirical papers, there are a wide variety of datasets analyzed. While China does play a significant part in the analysis of five of the papers in this volume (this is to be expected given its importance in the region), a host of other countries are also considered. This ensures the volume is truly international in its scope. These papers each serve to contribute to the knowledge on a particular issue related to the financial markets within this region and for this volume, three main issues have been identified: integration, innovation and challenges.
*Articles contributed by experts in their fields
*Truly international in scope

The deregulation of developed countries' financial markets, the reshaping of the traditional boundaries of commercial and investment banking activities, and the development of banking systems in emerging markets in recent times has seen an evolution of the roles performed by banks. This volume publishes original papers that examine the issues concerning challenges and opportunities for international banks in the rapidly changing global environment. It looks at financial markets and banking, examines the role of banks and lawyers in the global financial crisis, explores post-crisis financial regulation and highlights determinants of international banking. Truly international in coverage, specific articles focus on: bank fragility and the financial crisis with evidence from the U.S. dual banking system; Asia-Pacific perspectives on the financial crisis 2007-2009; bankers and scapegoats; lawyers and the meltdown; perspectives from the developing world on reforming international standards for bank capital requirements; Australian regulators and bank risk managers; the effects of underwriting practices on loan losses; and comparisons of banking efficiency in Europe.