The author seeks to prove that the recently initiated reform of the international currency system follows closely from the emergence of a global financial market. The rise of this market has radically increased the mobility of international capital flows. The phenomenon received its first but spectacular manifestation during the 1992-3 currency crises in the EMS countries, when the scale of speculative transactions exceeded all expectations. The crises brought forced changes to the system's exchange rate mechanism and boosted Western Europe's determination to form the European Monetary Union. Much graver effects were caused by the currency crises in the emerging countries, in particular in Mexico in 1994 and in South-East Asia in 1997. Their most serious consequence was the banking crises which compelled the affected countries to earmark a considerable part of their national incomes to the restoration of the banking sector. The Mexican and South-East Asian currency crises have revealed that the emerging countries are not fully prepared to take advantage of the opportunities provided the increased cross-border capital mobility, facilitating access to the sources of growth financing. The inflowing foreign capital was to a great extent employed to finance overly risky investments, which failed to stimulate the expected productivity improvement, thus also failing to create adequate sources for the repayment of the incurred foreign debt. Therefore the chief objective of the current reform is to create institutional barriers preventing importers of capital from undertaking too much risk. The analysis of currency crises in the emerging countries has shown that excessive risk was not only taken in the macroeconomic policy, but in particular at the micro level, in banks' and enterprises' business decisions. Therefore the documents underpinning the reform do not only stipulate that the monetary authorities in the respective countries observe the monetary and fiscal policy codes of conduct, approved by the international community. A lot of attention is given to the necessity, on the part of banks and companies, to comply with the management standards agreed upon at the international level. This refers, among others, to the banking supervision norms, accounting principles as well as legal norms relevant in the respective countries. Compliance with the universally accepted codes and standards is the necessary condition for a stable functioning of the nascent global financial market and containing the risk of a new wave of currency crises.