ECB Financial Stability Review

"Financial stability can be defined as a condition in which the financial system – comprising of financial intermediaries, markets and market infrastructures – is capable of withstanding shocks and the unravelling of financial imbalances, thereby mitigating the likelihood of disruptions in the financial intermediation process which are severe enough to significantly impair the allocation of savings to profitable investment opportunities. Understood this way, the safeguarding of financial stability requires identifying the main sources of risk and vulnerability such as ineficiencies in the allocation of financial resources from savers to investors and the mispricing or mismanagement of financial risks. This identification of risks and vulnerabilities is necessary because the monitoring of financial stability must be forward looking: inefficiencies in the allocation of capital or shortcomings in the pricing and management of risk can, if they lay the foundations for vulnerabilities, compromise future financial system stability and therefore economic stability. This Review assesses the stability of the euro area financial system both with regard to the role it plays in facilitating economic processes, and to its ability to prevent adverse shocks from having inordinately disruptive impacts."  Questa è la premessa che introduce l'ultimo numero della Financial Stability Review pubblicata lo scorso dicembre 2007 dalla Banca Centrale Europea. Potete scaricarla direttamente dal sito della Banca Centrale Europea cliccando qui.