The nine papers at this conference make a variety of welcome contributions in this area.
Two focus on an important aspect of the recent financial crisis – namely, the rise and fall of mortgage securitization and associated swings in real estate lending.2 Other papers study the causes and indicators of systemic risk more generally and look at how well macroprudential regulations and policies can address those causes.3 Finally, several papers examine specific regulations from a macroprudential perspective, including capital requirements and risk retention rules for securitization.4 The discussants’ remarks, the general discussions, and the policy panel will surely be very helpful in identifying fruitful directions for further research.