Securitization and Off-Balance-Sheet SPE's

FASB is going counter to the approach on M2M and will be requiring additional disclosure for off-balance-sheet loans. This is significant because it may further reduce the credit available in the shadow banking system, as the banks that ultimately support the shadow system are now going to have to disclose their exposure.

A few other posts or articles on securitisation/shadow banking system that I've noticed today-
Marginal Revolution's take and Tyler refers to The Economist article here and also Arnold King here.

Shadow banking system

I was actually reading chapter 7 of Animal Spirits, which provided a quick summary of the shadow banking system. I then did my scan of some blogs that I follow and found this incredibly detailed, yet not too long, post from Zero Hedge. It's probably the best description of the shadow banking system and it's role in the macro-economy that you will find.

On a positive note, there's at least some support for the idea that the shadow system is holding up and maybe bouncing back.