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02-10-2014, 07:39 AM
IMF warns on growth of shadow banking
AFP OCTOBER 02, 2014 8:15AM
Lightly regulated "shadow banking" has grown to huge proportions in the global financial system and increasingly poses a risk to stability, especially in the United States, the IMF says.
More than $US70 trillion ($A75.74 trillion) in assets are handled by shadow banks around the world, Gaston Gelos, chief of the Global Financial Analysis Division at the International Monetary Fund, told journalists in a briefing on Wednesday.
"It's quite large," he said.
"It's very important to understand what's going on there to be able to assess risks."
The sector includes lightly policed institutions like mutual funds, money market funds, wealth management funds in China, and finance companies in emerging economies, that take money from investors and lend it like banks.
They have grown larger in the extremely low interest-rate environment of the past six years, as investors seek higher yields on their money and banks tighten up under tougher post-crisis regulation.
But an IMF report says the risks are high because shadow banking largely depends on short-term funding.
In a scare, it says, the impact of panic withdrawals can snowball into the broader financial system and global economy with outsized impact.
That was seen in the financial crisis in 2008, when US money market funds that were important lenders in Europe faced large redemptions, and with the near-collapse of companies like insurer AIG.
Since the crisis the power of shadow banks has only grown, the IMF report notes.
In the United States, shadow banks have nearly twice as much assets than banks, and in the eurozone their assets have reached 60 per cent of the banks.
In developing countries the figure is close to 60 per cent.
The report said shadow banking serves a good purpose, broadening access to credit, especially in emerging-market economies.
But it said authorities need to have more information on the sector to gauge the level of systemic risk, and to regulate where possible.
AFP OCTOBER 02, 2014 8:15AM
Lightly regulated "shadow banking" has grown to huge proportions in the global financial system and increasingly poses a risk to stability, especially in the United States, the IMF says.
More than $US70 trillion ($A75.74 trillion) in assets are handled by shadow banks around the world, Gaston Gelos, chief of the Global Financial Analysis Division at the International Monetary Fund, told journalists in a briefing on Wednesday.
"It's quite large," he said.
"It's very important to understand what's going on there to be able to assess risks."
The sector includes lightly policed institutions like mutual funds, money market funds, wealth management funds in China, and finance companies in emerging economies, that take money from investors and lend it like banks.
They have grown larger in the extremely low interest-rate environment of the past six years, as investors seek higher yields on their money and banks tighten up under tougher post-crisis regulation.
But an IMF report says the risks are high because shadow banking largely depends on short-term funding.
In a scare, it says, the impact of panic withdrawals can snowball into the broader financial system and global economy with outsized impact.
That was seen in the financial crisis in 2008, when US money market funds that were important lenders in Europe faced large redemptions, and with the near-collapse of companies like insurer AIG.
Since the crisis the power of shadow banks has only grown, the IMF report notes.
In the United States, shadow banks have nearly twice as much assets than banks, and in the eurozone their assets have reached 60 per cent of the banks.
In developing countries the figure is close to 60 per cent.
The report said shadow banking serves a good purpose, broadening access to credit, especially in emerging-market economies.
But it said authorities need to have more information on the sector to gauge the level of systemic risk, and to regulate where possible.