Derivatives markets - A brief history of time

The past 10 years has seen unprecedented change for Asia's derivatives business. Asia Risk takes a look back at everything from the crisis to currency controls, the development of onshore derivatives markets and the growing influence of local banks. Alice Hales reports

Financial markets are constantly changing, yet the transformation of Asia's derivatives markets over the past 10 years has been astonishing by any standard. In 1995, onshore derivatives markets were almost unknown in much of the region. The US dollar was the currency of choice, the swaps market was dominated by global investment banks, and the derivatives products on offer did not stretch much beyond plain vanilla interest rate and currency swaps. Even then, there was no guarantee