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73 posts on "Financial Intermediation"
May 7, 2018

Have the Biggest U.S. Banks Become Less Complex?

The global financial crisis, and the ensuing Dodd-Frank Act, identified size and complexity as determinants of banks’ systemic importance, increasing the potential risks to financial stability. While it’s known that big banks haven’t shrunk, the question that remains is: have they simplified? In this post, we show that while the largest U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) have somewhat simplified their organizational structures, they remain very complex. The industries spanned by entities within the BHCs have shifted more than they have declined, and the countries in which some large BHCs have entities still include numerous “secrecy” or tax-haven locations.

February 2, 2018

New Report Assesses Structural Changes in Global Banking

The Committee on the Global Financial System, made up of senior officials from central banks around the world and chaired by New York Fed President William Dudley, recently released a report on “Structural Changes in Banking after the Crisis.” The report includes findings from a wide-ranging study documenting the significant structural adjustments in banking systems around the world in response to regulatory, technological, and market changes after the crisis, while also assessing their implications for financial stability, credit provision, and capital markets activity. It includes a new banking database spanning over twenty-one countries from 2000 to 2016 that could serve as a valuable reference for further analysis. Overall, the study concludes that the changed regulatory and market environment since the crisis has led banks to alter their business models and balance sheets in ways that make them more resilient but also less profitable, while continuing their role as intermediaries providing financial services to the real economy.

January 10, 2018

The ‘Banking Desert’ Mirage

Donald P. Morgan, Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, and Davy Perlman Editor’s note: The original version of this post misstated the share of the population that is unbanked for several states. The table, interactive chart, and related text have been corrected. These changes did not alter our conclusion that across states, the share of the population that […]

October 4, 2017

The Cost and Duration of Excess Funding Capacity in Tri‑Party Repo

In a previous post, we showed that dealers sometimes enter into tri-party repo contracts to acquire excess funding capacity, and that this strategy is most prevalent for the agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and equity asset classes. In this post, we examine the maturity of the repos used to pursue this strategy and estimate the associated costs.

October 2, 2017

Excess Funding Capacity in Tri‑Party Repo

Security dealers sometimes enter into tri-party repo contracts to fund one class of securities with the expectation they will wind up settling the contract with higher quality securities.

Posted at 7:00 am in Financial Intermediation, Repo | Permalink
June 23, 2017

At the New York Fed: Twelfth Annual Joint Conference with NYU‑Stern on Financial Intermediation

Anyone who has a savings account, has taken out a mortgage, or has been part of a business seeking new capital has relied on the smooth functioning of the institutions and markets that collectively perform financial intermediation. Because financial intermediation is so critical to the functioning of a modern economy, it is important to understand its inner workings—its fundamental features, recent innovations, and lines of transmission to real economy activity, as well as its imperfections and its interactions with regulatory policies. As part of an ongoing effort to foster such an understanding, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently hosted the twelfth annual Federal Reserve Bank of New York–New York University, Stern School of Business Conference on Financial Intermediation. In this post, we explore some of the discussions and findings from the May 10 conference, which focused on recent advances in the study of financial intermediation.

Posted at 7:00 am in Financial Intermediation | Permalink
March 20, 2017

Money Market Funds and the New SEC Regulation

On October 14, 2016, amendments to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule 2a-7, which governs money market mutual funds (MMFs), went into effect. The changes are designed to reduce MMFs’ susceptibility to destabilizing runs and contain two principal requirements.

December 1, 2014

What Do Banks Do with All That “Fracking” Money?

Banks play a crucial role in the economy by channeling funds from savers to borrowers.

December 23, 2013

The Fragility of an MMF‑Intermediated Financial System

Since the financial crisis of 2007-09—and, in particular, the run on prime money market funds (MMFs) in September 2008—policymakers have been concerned that the funds’ fragility may render banks themselves more susceptible to risk.

November 20, 2013

Intermediary Leverage Cycles and Financial Stability

The financial crisis of 2007-09 highlighted the central role that financial intermediaries play in the propagation and amplification of shocks.

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