Shadow Banking

In the dark: why shadow banking could trigger the next financial crisis

The sector carries out financial activities, but is not regulated like banking – and it holds €3.7 trillion in assets in Ireland alone

The growth of non-bank finance has altered the Irish financial system from being balanced between bank and non-bank financial activities a decade ago, to now being dominated by non-bank financial institutions. Picture: Getty

Around the world, financial regulators are increasingly raising the alarm about shadow banking and the role it could play in triggering the next systemic financial crisis.

Made up of institutions that carry out financial market activities but are not regulated in the way banks are, the European shadow banking sector, also known as the non-bank sector or the market-based finance sector, has narrowly avoided meltdown in recent years only because of emergency interventions by the ...