Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP)

What Is the Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP)?

The term Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP) refers to an organization comprised of central banks and monetary authorities of 11 economies from East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. Created in 1991, EMEAP's mandate is to establish and maintain cooperation among the economies in the region.

The organization holds regular meetings each year and oversees working groups that were established to discuss and analyze ongoing economical and financial events within the region. EMEAP's growth has been steady since it was established and includes the creation of the Asian Bond Fund Initiative.

Understanding the Executives' Meeting of East Asia-Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP)

EMEAP was established in 1991. It is an organization that brings together central banks and monetary authorities of 11 economies from East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. These include:

• Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
• People’s Bank of China
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority
• Bank Indonesia
• Bank of Japan (BOJ)
• Bank of Korea
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• Reserve Bank of New Zealand
• Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
• Monetary Authority of Singapore
• Bank of Thailand.

Member economies held executive-level meetings twice annually during the early years of the organization. These meetings facilitated the informal exchange of information related to the regional developments in the economy and finance. EMEAP made changes in 1996, strengthening them in response to the increasing interdependence of the 11 economies.

EMEAP held its first governors’ meeting in Tokyo in 1996. At that time, leaders began holding annual governors' meetings. They also established the:

• Financial Market Development Working Group, which is responsible for the study of central bank services and foreign exchange, money, and bond market development
• Central Banking Operations Working Group
• Banking Supervision Study Group, which oversees supervision issues related to banking that may be of interest to participating central banks
• IT Directors’ Meeting, which reviews information technology and how it relates to central bank member economies.

EMEAP continues to evaluate its direction and makes changes to its structure in order to align itself with its goals and mandate. For instance, the group established the Monetary and Financial Stability Committee in 2007 to enhance its macro-monitoring and crisis management mechanisms.

Special Considerations

Central bank governors who are part of EMEAP meet annually with their counterparts in the Eurosystem. The Eurosystem is the eurozone's monetary authority and is made up of members of the European Union (EU) that use the euro as their official currency. These meetings began in 2004 as a way to deepen the relationship between EMEAP and Eurosystem monetary leaders.

Asian Bond Fund Initiative

EMEAP believed that Asian debt markets were vastly underdeveloped with most investors choosing to invest in bond markets in the West. As a result, the organization created the Asian Bond Fund Initiative, launching the first stage of the project in June 2003. The second stage was launched in December 2004. The aim was to drive more investment into and broaden the Asian bond market.

The initiative was a milestone in central bank cooperation in Asia. EMEAP central banks and monetary authorities agreed to set a small portion of their foreign exchange reserves aside. This capital was and continues to be invested in domestic Asian bonds.

The first stage invested in a basket of bonds that were issued by issuers of Asian sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt in EMEAP economies. They did not, however, include three of the major member economies: Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. These investments were all denominated in U.S. dollars.