To promote stability in a dynamic fi nancial system, supervisors must monitor the system for risks at all times. The Cleveland Fed has developed an index of fi nancial stress, the CFSI, which is designed to track distress in the fi nancial system as it is building. The CFSI will help financial...

Everyone recognizes the need to have a credible resolution regime in place for financial companies whose failure could harm the entire financial system, but people disagree about which regime is best. The emergence of the parallel banking system has led policymakers to reconsider the dividing...

One of the changes introduced by the sweeping new financial market legislation of the Dodd–Frank Act is the provision of a formal process for liquidating large financial firms—something that would have been useful in 2008, when troubles at Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Merrill Lynch threatened...

An examination of contagious bank runs and a discussion of how private clearinghouses have protected against widespread bank failures, with the determination that federal deposit insurance may not be necessary to protect against runs; conclusion of February 1 issue.

A discussion of the hypotheses that high levels of interbank exposure reduce the safety and soundness of the banking system and that interbank exposure affects the ability of the FDIC to use market discipline as a constraint on banks' risk-taking, with comment on Fourth Federal Reserve District...

The need for federal deposit insurance is often based on the claim that it prevents bank runs and makes the banking system more stable. But research shows that banks could prevent bank runs by constructing their deposit contracts appropriately, and, in the absence of deposit insurance, they...

An examination of the contributions of economic and managerial factors to commercial bank failures in the 1980s.

An analysis of the costs and benefits of providing federal deposit insurance as a means of preventing widespread bank failures, and the role of bank regulators in assuring bank solvency; article concludes with February 15 issue.

A critical analysis of the probable effects of national depositor preference--a provision of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993--showing that although the FDIC may experience some cost savings in the short term, the long-term benefits are likely to be greatly diminished.

A discussion of the fundamental economic principles to consider in evaluating proposals to reform the current system of federal deposit insurance.