The Group of 20 (G-20) was formed in 1999 as a forum of Finance Ministers of the member countries to discuss issues in the areas of money and finance. The initiative for setting up the Group was taken by the Group of 7 (G-7) of the highly industrialised countries. Thus, G-20, in a sense, was and continued to function until the onset of the 2008-2009 crisis, as an extension of G-7 at the level of Finance Ministers. It was not a mere coincidence that the Group was put in place soon after the economic meltdown of the South-East Asian countries in 1996-1997 and the economic disaster that struck Russia in 1998. Underlying the formation of the Group was also the desire on the part of members of the Group to explore the possibility of taking coordinated action to prevent the recurrence of such financial and economic crises