Building a Modern Financial System

'This fine book is already a standard reference work on Indonesian financial development. It provides historical scope, both comprehensive coverage and institutional depth of detail, and insightful, very balanced policy analysis and assessment of the process over the past thirty years … In reading this book one gains a deepened appreciation of all that is needed to create a strong prudential system: the political will; the right laws and their strong enforcement; effective accounting, auditing, supervisory and inspection systems; adequate disclosure and transparency; and sufficient numbers of well-trained specialists to carry out these tasks. Moreover, once problems are discovered there has to be the political and institutional will to correct them rather than paper them over … In virtually all these respects Indonesia remains prudentially weak … This book is not only a case study of Indonesia, it is a model of the sort of studies we need for national experiences of financial development and, given Indonesia's earlier statist ideology, is of particular policy relevance for economies transiting from planned to market economies.' Hugh Patrick, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature