The focus of this study is the supervisory and regulatory framework for bank supervision in Thailand and the Thai authorities' efforts to modernize and restructure the Thai banking system. It examines the obstacles to this restructuring, which include economic difficulties in Thailand and the East Asia region in the 1990s as well as more fundamental historical, cultural and socio-economic factors that underpin Thai society. The book looks at the numerous banking statutes put in place in Thailand since the early 20th century, including legislation of the 1980s in response to problems involving fraud, insider dealing and solvency concerns. It examines how historically ambiguous structures of governmental responsibility and power, and a heavy emphasis on government discretion in regulation, have so far inhibited the effectiveness of this extensive body of legislation in developing a sound modern banking system.