Bernie Fraser, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has even proposed creating a new regional central bank for central bankers, rather like the Bank for International Settlements in Basle.

ECONOMIST: Next: AMU?

After claiming for a year that the country needed to boost credit and spend its way out of the regional slump, the central bank has now done an about-face and placed restrictions on new property loans.

ECONOMIST: A nervous shuffle in Malaysia

That sentiment was echoed in the Federal Reserve's beige book, an anecdotal summary of economic conditions across the central bank's 12 regional districts.

WSJ: Retail Sales Increase

But many national regulators admit that in the event of a serious crisis the European Central Bank would have to step in, and that bank supervision will eventually be handled at the regional level.

ECONOMIST: It all depends

Mundell is proposing, in effect, a de facto super-regional currency area by managing the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro through a process of central bank coordination.

FORBES: Mundell's Dollar/Euro Fix Doesn't Fix Our Currency Mess

Trade settlement between the two countries was hit after India's central bank barred Iran-related payments from being processed through the Asian Clearing Union, a regional clearinghouse which the U.S. says is opaque and could be used by Tehran to finance its alleged nuclear-weapons program.

WSJ: India Plans to Step Up Oil, Gas Investment in Africa