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This article describes and explains the evolution of Malaysia's locally owned banks in a series of mergers and acquisitions within national borders and beyond. It argues that state intervention, external economic and financial crises and the liberalization of the financial sector have compelled the consolidation of local banks in Malaysia. The consolidation process has resulted in the increased size of state-owned banks, decreased the number of local Chinese-owned banks and seen a decline in family shareholding in the remaining Chinese-controlled banks. Through regional expansion both Chinese-controlled and stateowned operations have become large-scale regionally based banking groups or global banks, deepening the financial integration in ASEAN countries.

The multifarious forces of globalization have profoundly changed not only the global economic landscape but also the identities of ethnic groups, nations and regions. As highlighted in the four articles that constitute this special issue, globalization has led to increasing cooperation between East and Southeast Asian countries through the simultaneous processes of regionalization and regionalism. Each country contributes to closer cooperation in Asia, albeit unevenly and in different ways (Frost 2008: 14). Since the 1990s, regionalism has been viewed as a potent force in the globalization process as 'it represents concentrations of political and economic power competing in the global economy, with multiple interregional and intra-regional flows' (Mittelman 1996: 190). This powerful force is extended into cross-regional interstate cooperation in terms of seeking preferential trading relations with countries outside the region through free trade agreements (Solis and Katada 2007). The current trend leans towards establishing more extensive and multifaceted external linkages within a multipolar context. The ASEAN Six

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