The Financial Systems of Industrial Countries Evidence from Financia
This book offers a comprehensive overview of the financial systems of major industrialized countries using the statistical framework of the financial accounts. After a discussion of how economists agreed to create a framework to monitor the financial link
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Riccardo De Bonis • Alberto Franco Pozzolo Editors
The Financial Systems of Industrial Countries Evidence from Financial Accounts
Editors Riccardo De Bonis Bank of Italy Economics, Research and International Relations via Nazionale 91 00184 Rome Italy [email protected]
Alberto Franco Pozzolo Universita` degli Studi del Molise Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche Gestionali e Sociali via de Sanctis 86100 Campobasso Italy [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-23110-0 e-ISBN 978-3-642-23111-7 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-23111-7 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943169 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To our parents
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Foreword
The Great Recession of 2008/09 had two distinct characteristics: its financial origin and its global dimension. Over the last 20 years substantial changes have occurred in market openness, as well as in technology and demography. Financial integration has been very intense in the advanced economies and financial deepening has accompanied a marked increase in world economic growth. The development of new information and communication technologies impacted all sectors of the economy. The financial system was affected to a significant degree in all its building blocks, from market exchanges to investment instruments, from payment and settlement infrastructures to the behaviour of intermediaries. The securitization of banks’ assets expanded considerably, and with it the complexity of structured financial products. Contrary to most expectations, this meant that rather than being more distributed across a wider set of investors, credit risk ended up being extremely concentrated. Moreover, unlike traditional bonds these products were not generally traded in secondary markets and their valuation was often based on conjectures that were hard to verify. Over the years the values of traditional financial and real assets – such as equities and real estate – reflected the predominantly low interest rates generated by highly expansive monetary policies and large flows of investment in the financial ma
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