Shadow banking, financial risk, and regulation in China and other developing countries

Shadow banking is growing rapidly in a number of developing countries, including China where it recently was estimated at around 20 trillion yuan (which is approximately a third the size of China's bank - lending market). The shadow banking sector in these countries is typically weakly regulated, yet the growth of the sector is thought to pose risks to financial stability. Additional regulation therefore may be needed. Any such regulation, however, should attempt to strike a balance between reducing that risk and preserving shadow banking as an important channel of alternative funding to developing economies, particularly in the face of significant retrenchment by large banks that had dominated the credit supply.