In November 2010, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) announced arrangements to expand and formalise outreach beyond its membership. To this end, six regional consultative groups were established to bring together financial authorities from FSB member and non-member countries to exchange views on vulnerabilities affecting financial systems and on initiatives to promote financial stability.

Today, the Bank of Korea hosted the inaugural meeting of the FSB Regional Consultative Group for Asia in Seoul, Korea. Members discussed the FSB's workplan and policy priorities, major financial regulatory reforms and their impacts, and vulnerabilities and regional financial stability issues. Discussions on regulatory reforms and their impacts centred around the recently announced framework for systemically important financial institutions, the Basel III capital framework and shadow banking. Under the heading vulnerabilities and regional financial stability issues, members discussed the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the risk of spillover to Asia, policy options for reducing the volatility of capital flows and the development of domestic capital markets, particularly bond markets.

The FSB Regional Consultative Group for Asia is co-chaired by Governor Choongsoo Kim, Bank of Korea and Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Bank Negara Malaysia. Membership includes financial authorities from Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.