Many of the most important agreements pertaining to international banking and finance
have been reached only informally after discussions among a limited number of important nation
states or market participants. These agreements have then been enforced using domestic legislation or
other means, and have been extended to a wider international community only by force of example.
This approach, referred to by Kapstein (1994) as "international cooperation based on home country
control", might also be thought the model for further agreements in the area of international finance
and banking. However, the relative decline of the industrial countries, amid signs of emergence of a
number of new and important financial centres raises questions about who is to participate in future
discussions likely to have global implications