Shadow banking is the creation or transfer-by banks and non-bank intermediariesof bank-like risks outside the banking system. In Italy the shadow banking system is fully regulated, mostly following the principle of same business-same rules or 'bank-equivalent regulation'. After an overview of the topic, we describe the Italian shadow banking system and the related regulatory and supervisory framework in place before the financial crisis and the subsequent enhancements. A quantitative representation of Italian shadow banking is also provided. The paper argues that through a wide and consistent regulatory perimeter, based on the principle of 'bank-equivalent regulation', it is possible to setup a well-balanced prudential framework, where both bank and non-bank regulation contribute to reducing systemic risks and regulatory arbitrage.

The paper analyses the interactions between the 'cash' market (MTS Cash) and the futures market (Eurex) of Italian government bonds in terms of liquidity, price correlation and volatility. Based on daily data, the growth of the Eurex market seems to support the tightening of the bid-ask spread of MTS Cash, all things being equal, thus confirming a healthy and efficient link between cash and futures markets. Against this backdrop, a high frequency analysis highlights some episodes of partial divergence between price developments of futures and cash markets, which might be related to differences in the microstructures of the two markets. The futures market is order driven while the cash market is quote driven; furthermore different types of participants are active in each market. At higher frequencies, episodes of unidirectional propagation of volatility shocks from BTP futures to the MTS Cash market materialize, with potential spillovers on cash market liquidity conditions. In this regard, it is also important to consider the role played by High Frequency Traders, whose activity in futures markets may well contribute to explaining the peculiarities in price dynamics highlighted by high frequency data.

No abstract

No abstract