Shadow Banking System

The current financial crisis has highlighted the growing importance of the ¿shadow banking system,¿ which grew out of the securitization of assets and the integration of banking with capital market developments. This trend has been most pronounced in the U.S., but it has had a profound influence on the global financial system. Securitization was intended as a way to transfer credit risk to those better able to absorb losses, but instead it increased the fragility of the entire financial system by allowing banks and other intermediaries to ¿leverage up¿by buying one another¿s securities. In the new, post-crisis financial system, the role of securitization will likely be held in check by more stringent financial regulation. Charts and tables.