The rise of shadow banking

Shadow banking is the banking provided by non-banks, like insurers or investments funds, instead of traditional banks. It now represents almost half of the world’s financial assets, double the amount it represented during the financial crisis in 2008. While it is good news to have more sources for banking making hereby the world less dependent on banks, this trend also carries risks as shadow banking is harder to regulate and may make the access to funding more difficult for certain companies. Instead of going to see their banker for their financing needs, CFO’s may increasingly need to go and see their fund manager in the future.