BIS Review 52/2004  3  Conceptually, I think that the Financial Stability Forum represents a major advance because for the first time the international community stresses that issues, challenges and risks must be examined in a comprehensive and complete fashion, through all their systemic implications, whether analysed from the standpoint of the International Financial Institutions, or of supervision authorities, or from the financial stability perspective of central banks.
It also explicitly points out that optimising the functioning of each and all particular subcomponents of the global financial system, in their proper spheres, does not suffice. A cross-checking at the level of the overall system remains of the essence. The best banking supervision concept worked out in an isolated manner could have some counterproductive features from a global stability perspective.