Nobody disputes that the crisis in Thailand centred on bad policies notably, its bungled partial deregulation of the financial sector (including the notorious Bangkok International Banking Facility, which encouraged hard-currency lending to weak borrowers), its large and persistent external deficit, and its overvalued exchange rate.

ECONOMIST: Is contagion a myth?

Mr. Van Rompuy said he and Mr. Lew talked about the next steps in building the banking union, including work on a facility to allow the euro-zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to directly recapitalize ailing banks without having to go through national governments.

WSJ: Europe Financial Woes Dominate Talks With U.S.

Online banking accounts, for example, hold the last 30 to 90 days on a cache facility off the mainframe.

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