The Financial Stability Forum (FSF) held its thirteenth meeting in Tokyo today, when members discussed risks and vulnerabilities in the international financial system and reviewed ongoing work to mitigate sources of vulnerability. On the latter, issues reviewed included accounting and auditing issues, hedge funds, reinsurance, business continuity and liquidity, risk management, fraud in financial markets, international remittances, and corporate governance.
**Offshore Financial Centres**
The FSF used the forum to announce a new process to promote further improvements in offshore financial centres (OFCs). The process is intended to continue to ensure that OFCs meet international standards as financial markets evolve and to address remaining problems in several OFCs, notably in the areas of effective cross-border cooperation, information exchange and adequacy of supervisory resources. *(See Special Reports link below)*
The Forum brings together on a regular basis national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centres, international financial institutions, sector-specific international groupings of regulators and supervisors, and committees of central bank experts. It was first convened in 1999, and seeks to co-ordinate the efforts of these various bodies in order to promote international financial stability, improve the functioning of markets, and reduce systemic risk.
The next meeting of the Financial Stability Forum will be held in September 2005.