Читать книгу Understanding Systemic Risk in Global Financial Markets - Gottesman Aron - Страница 8

The topic of systemic risk should be of critical importance to the numerous actors and stakeholders that make up the global financial ecosystem. This includes, among others, financial institutions such as banks, investment banks, and asset managers, financial regulators, policymakers, and central banks, as well as individual investors. It is also important to the general consumer, given that systemic events have the potential of spilling over from the financial system and impacting the real economy. Many historical systemic events have led to national or even global recessions, significant loss of employment, and a spike in both corporate and personal bankruptcies and taxpayer losses. Clearly, the most widely known and recent example of a systemic event was the Credit Crisis of 2007–2009, which involved, among other events, the collapse of the U.S. residential real estate and asset-backed securities markets, as well as the bankruptcy or bailout of many globally recognizable financial institutions, including Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and American International Group (AIG), among others.

Given the high-profile failure or effective failure of these long-established financial firms, combined with the fact that financial crises have occurred with far greater frequency over the last several decades, some people may assume that systemic risk is only a recent phenomenon. However, it is important to understand that systemic events have been occurring for many centuries. Some well-known and relatively recent examples of such events include the U.S. savings & loan crisis, the bursting of Japan's real estate bubble, the Latin American debt crisis, the collapse of the U.S. junk bond market, the failure of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, and the bursting of the dot-com bubble.

Before the Credit Crisis the topic of systemic risk was rarely discussed within the financial services industry. Furthermore, organized research on the topic was limited and occurred only within academia and the research divisions of certain financial regulators or central banks. However, given the devastating impact of this event globally and the massive response by global financial regulators, the focus on systemic risk has skyrocketed over the past five years and is now the subject of regular discussion, analysis, and monitoring by all stakeholders across the globe.

This chapter introduces the topic of systemic risk, explores the many definitions that have been published or discussed in recent years, summarizes the key drivers of historical systemic events, and explains why it is critical that this topic be further analyzed and understood.

After you read this chapter you will be able to:

● Describe the common definitions of systemic risk.

● Understand the key drivers of prior systemic events.

● Explain the different impacts a systemic event can have on the financial industry and real economy.