We provide a framework for monitoring the shadow banking system. The shadow banking system consists of a web of specialized financial institutions that conduct credit, maturity, and liquidity transformation without direct, explicit access to public backstops. The lack of such access to sources...

In this paper, we use methods from social network analysis to assess the relative importance of financial centers around the world. Using data from virtually the entire universe of global equity activity, we present complete rankings for 45 separate locations for the period 1990–2006. Our...

Foreign banks pulled significant funding from their US branches during the Great Recession. We estimate that the average-sized branch experienced a twelve percent net internal fund "withdrawal," with the fund transfer disproportionately bigger for larger branches. This internal shock to the...

Size and complexity are customarily viewed as contributing to the too-big-to-fail status of financial institutions. Yet there is no standard accepted metric for the complexity of a “typical” financial firm, much less for a large firm engaged in global finance. This article provides...

This study documents the changing organizational complexity of bank holding companies as gauged by the number and types of subsidiaries. Using comprehensive data on U.S. financial acquisitions over the past thirty years, the authors track the process of consolidation and diversification, finding...

I introduce the concept of hybrid intermediaries: financial conglomerates that control a multiplicity of entity types active in the “assembly line” process of modern financial intermediation, a system that has become known as shadow banking. The complex bank holding companies of today are...

This is the introduction to a volume which explores the changing role of banks in the financial intermediation process. It accompanies a Liberty Street Blog series. Both discuss the complexity of the credit intermediation chain associated with securitization and note the growing participation of...

Foreign banks pulled significant funding from their U.S. branches during the Great Recession. We estimate that the average-sized branch experienced a 12 percent net internal fund “withdrawal,” with the fund transfer disproportionately bigger for larger branches. This internal shock to the...