EN
The current financial crisis has highlighted the changing role of financial institutions and the growing importance of the "shadow banking system" that grew on the back of the securitization of assets and repo operations. One thing financial reform must do, is bringing non-bank banking out of the shadow. In this process we think on "shadow banking" as on financial innovation. It is wrong to think all shadow banking activities are by definition bad and should consequently be banned completely. The shadow banking system consititutes an alternative source of financing and liquidity for companies and private banking. Overregulation of the shadow banking would prove to be unproductive. We need to understand shadow banking not as something parallel to and separate from the core banking system, but deeply intertwined with is as financial innovation. 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.