As an indication of the funds collected by the private sector, the sum of bank credit to this sector, debt securities outstanding and stock market capitalisation has risen from about 150 per cent to around 240 per cent of GDP in the euro-area (compared to over 300 per cent in the United States and in the United Kingdom; Fig. 1). Fig.
1 - Size of capital markets (ratios to GDP) Bank credit to the private sector  Domestic debt securities issued by the private sector  Stock market capitalisation  4 United States  Euro area  Japan  United Kingdom  3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1996  2006  1996  2006  1996  2006  1996  2006  Sources: IMF International Financial Statistics, BIS, Datastream.