Shadow banking and financial stability in an era of private credit
Shadow banking
Fecha: enero 2026
Pedro Cuadros-Solas, Francisco Rodríguez-Fernández, and Nuria Suárez
SEFO, Spanish and International Economic & Financial Outlook, V. 15 N.º1 (January 2026)
The non-bank financial institution (NBFI) system, commonly referred to as shadow banking, has reached systemic scale and is now a central feature of global financial intermediation. In Europe, non-bank financial institutions manage more than €50 trillion in assets, around 42% of the financial system, while global private credit has surpassed $3 trillion, expanding rapidly outside the traditional regulatory perimeter. This growth is accompanied by structural vulnerabilities linked to high leverage, liquidity and maturity mismatches, and increasingly dense interconnections with banks. Exposures between banks and non-bank entities already amount to trillions of dollars, concentrating risks in a small number of systemic institutions and increasing the potential for two-way contagion. Spain shows a lower domestic weight of non-bank finance, at roughly 34% of the system, but remains exposed through international funds, leveraged credit markets, and indirect banking channels. Shadow banking has become a durable source of both diversification and fragility, strengthening the case for integrated monitoring, cross-sector stress testing, and coordinated regulatory responses.