Capital Account Convertibility - History

History

CAC was first coined as a theory by the Reserve Bank of India in 1997 by the Tarapore Committee, in an effort to find fiscal and economic policies that would enable developing Third World countries transition to globalized market economies. However, it had been practiced, although without formal thought or organization of policy or restriction, since the very early 90's. Article VIII of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement is agreed by most economists to have been the basis for CAC, although it notably failed to anticipate problems with the concept in regard to outflows of currency.

However, before the formalization of CAC, there were problems with the theory. Free flow of assets was required to work in both directions. Although CAC freely enabled investment in the country, it also enabled quick liquidation and removal of capital assets from the country, both domestic and foreign. It also exposed domestic creditors to overseas credit risks, fluctuations in fiscal policy, and manipulation.

As a result, there were severe disruptions that helped to contribute to the East Asian crisis of the mid 90's. In Malaysia, for example, there were heavy losses in overseas investments of at least one bank, in the magnitude of hundreds of millions of dollars. These were not realized and identified until a reform system strengthened regulatory and accounting controls. This led to the Tarapore Committee meeting which formalized CAC as utilizing a mixture of free asset allocation and stringent controls.