Banking and Financial Regulation and Reform in Myanmar

For fifty years Myanmar has been without a properly functioning financial system. This absence has been a significant brake on the efficacy of reform in Myanmar, on foreign investment, and on the ability of Myanmar firms to raise the capital they need to grow and prosper. Since 2011, however, critical but limited reforms have been put in place by Myanmar’s new government. These include reforms to Myanmar’s exchange rate arrangements, and the granting of a degree of formal autonomy to the country’s central bank. Other reforms, pending but not yet implemented, include allowing a role for foreign banks, and making changes to the broader regulatory arrangements that currently greatly constrain the operations of Myanmar’s banks. In recent times much progress has been made in creating the financial institutions Myanmar needs to achieve transformational growth, but much remains to be done.