FRANKFURT, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), called Thursday in Frankfurt for widening macroprudential toolkit in the European Union (EU) to address risks beyond banking sector.
While delivering speech at the annual conference of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) also chaired by him, Draghi welcomed the efforts of EU policymakers who have already started using macroprudential tools to address risks in the real estate sector and banking sector as well as structural risks in member states.
"Since the new EU prudential rules for banks entered into force at the start of 2014, policymakers have been proactive in using macroprudential tools to address emerging areas of risk," Draghi said.
The EU economy has been growing now for more than five years, to which important contributions were made by macroprudential policy as well as by monetary policy, the ECB chief said.
However, he reminded that macroprudential instruments in the EU so far for the most part target the banking sector, given the predominance of bank-based finance at the time that the initial response to the global financial crisis was designed.
"Yet non-bank finance is playing an increasingly important role in financing the economy," Draghi underlined.
With total assets of over 42 trillion euros (49 trillion U.S. dollars), the shadow banking sector accounts for around 40 percent of the EU financial system, according to the estimation by the ECB.
"As the Capital Markets Union progresses, the role of non-bank finance is expected to increase further," Draghi said. Thus he urged that policymakers need a comprehensive macroprudential toolkit to act in case existing risks migrate outside the banking sector or new risks emerge.
Tools for insurance should be involved in the wider toolkit, in addition to further tools which should deal with liquidity risk and those risks associated with leverage among some types of investment funds, said Draghi.
