SIFMA Study
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), in response to the credit
crisis, undertook a study (in conjunction with Deloitte and Touche) to examine systemic risk
in the financial sector. The outcome of their study is reported in their aptly named publication,
“Systemic Risk Information Study”. SIFMA hope the study will provide useful guidance
on how new policies on monitoring systemic risk can be effectively implemented. SIFMA
recommends the creation of a systemic risk regulator and highlights that better qualitative
and quantitative information regarding the identification and mitigation of systemic risk will
be critical components of any comprehensive financial regulatory reform. The study does not
offer a definition of systemic risk, it states that at the time of publication there was no single
agreed-upon definition but declares that the industry and regulators must have a common
understanding of what the term means. The study records two contemporary definitions of
systemic risk.29,30 The study identified nine drivers of systemic risk: size; interconnectedness;
liquidity; concentration; correlation; tight coupling; herding behaviour; crowded trades; and
leverage. These are described in summary form in Box 4.4.