New Deposit Insurance Systems in East Asia

The last decade has seen tremendous growth in the number of deposit insurance systems around the world. This has been particularly noticeable in East Asia, driven by such factors as rapid financial system development, economic crises and a general desire to improve depositor protection and financial stability. Deposit insurance systems have recently been introduced in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia and are expected to be operational soon in Singapore and Thailand. The People's Republic of China plans, to introduce a deposit insurance system in the near future. Although each of these new systems has been designed to meet specific country and regional circumstances, their designers have sought to adopt evolving good practices in developing their deposit insurance systems. As a result, the systems share similarities in their objectives and design features such as governance, membership, funding and approaches to public awareness. The major differences arise in mandates and coverage limits. In addition, many of the new East Asian systems have had to deal with the challenge of transitioning from blanket guarantees to limited explicit deposit insurance while trying to maintain financial system stability. Finally, given that so many new systems are being set up at similar times the paper explores opportunities for greater information sharing and co-operation among deposit insurers in East Asia.