The Nonbank-Bank Nexus and the Shadow Banking System

ARTICLE December 14, 2011

by Zoltan Pozsar and Manmohan Singh

Abstract

The present way of thinking about financial intermediation does not fully incorporate the rise of asset managers as a major source of funding for banks through the shadow banking system. Asset managers are dominant sources of demand for non-M2 types of money and serve as source collateral ‘mines’ for the shadow banking system. Banks receive funding through the re-use of pledged collateral ‘mined’ from asset managers. Accounting for this, the size of the shadow banking system in the U.S. may be up to $25 trillions at year-end 2007 and $18 trillion at year-end 2010, higher than earlier estimates. In terms of policy, regulators will need to consider the re-use of pledged collateral when defining bank leverage ratios. Also, given asset managers’ demand for non-M2 types of money, monitoring the shadow banking system will warrant closer attention well beyond the regulatory perimeter.

Read the entire paper on the IMF website.