This paper is about the question whether cooperation on financial matters in Pacific Asia is primarily a multilateral issue, i. e. should be dealt with at the level of global arrangements and organizations, or whether there is some scope for regional action. In the first section, based on the experience of the Asian financial crisis, it is discussed whether so far regional international organizations played a significant role with respect to pre-crisis schemes aimed at the financial sector, crisis management and the follow-up process of mitigating negative effects. In section 2, the potential future role of regional arrangements with respect to the surveillance of financial system reform, (additional) financial assistance schemes, technical assistance for banking reform and supervision, and the required analytical capability are discussed. As for the conclusions, on economic grounds there is little what could and should clearly be done on a regional level. The most basic reason is that in the financial market s multilateral interdependence is so strong that it is quite difficult to make the case for a regional approach. However, there may be broader political reasons for the advanced and emerging economies of Pacific Asia to establish more channels of cooperation. This would be an ad-hoc approach, resting on eventually emerging topics. Such an open agenda would be very similar to what has been proposed for APEC during its inaugural years