In their quest for financial stability, central banks worldwide have exhibited a variety of responses. On the one hand, several central banks have been given an explicit mandate to promote financial stability (Annex 2). Another broad category of response has been the constitution of independent departments to oversee financial stability.
Illustratively, at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the supervisory and financial market departments were merged into a Financial Stability Department. At the ECB, the area concerned with financial stability matters (Prudential Supervision Division) was upgraded to a Directorate (Financial Stability and Supervision), which reports to a member of the Executive Board, and plays a coordination role for euro area/ EU financial stability monitoring.