Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
This article explores the hypothesis that trends in the financial regulatory and supervisory policies of advanced industrialized countries encouraged the retreat of international banks from lending to developing countries during the 1980s. Drawing upon the illustrative cases of the United States, Japan, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany, it assesses the plausibility of the argument that convergent trends in regulatory policies reinforced that retreat, notwithstanding the efforts of top policymakers to promote adequate new lending in the context of a deepening crisis.