By Jeanne Gobat
The near collapse of the financial system that set off the global crisis was due in part to financial institutions suddenly lacking access to funding markets, and liquidity drying-up across securities markets.
Many financial institutions were unable to roll over or obtain short term funding without sustaining significant losses. This threatened to sink them.
Financial institutions did not factor in how their own responses to a liquidity shortfall could make the entire system shut down and less stable—that is, they underestimated their contribution to systemic liquidity risk in good times, and did not bear the cost of their actions on others in bad times.
It only takes a few institutions to pull the plug on a liquidity-filled bathtub before it runs dry, and the central bank needs to open the spigots again. (more…)
Filed under: Financial Crisis, Financial regulation, Financial sector supervision, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: Basel III, financial institutions, financial system, funding markets, global financial crisis, Global Financial Stability Report, liquidity conditions, liquidity risk, macroprudential policies, Microprudential regulations, regulatory reform, solvency risk, stress-testing, systemic liquidity risk | 1 Comment »
