Corporate Finance and the Asian Bond Market

Firms in East Asia have extremely polarized funding patterns. Those that play a centralrole in national development policies have easy access to markets for external funds, while newly established firms face difficulties in accessing these markets due to the existence of substantial information asymmetry. This paper discusses the development of the infomediary industry in bond markets and the improvement of legislative procedures for liquidation, whichare necessary for the future development of bond markets. The paper argues that East Asian corporate bond markets have implicitly imposed three requirements on corporate bond issuers entering the market