Central concerns

Central banks have found they have had to tear up the rule book during the financial crisis, in order to respond to fast-moving events in a more spontaneous and imaginative way. Much of the focus has been on the US Federal Reserve and its role in brokering the takeover of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan in March 2008, the decision to allow the failure of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent bailout of American International Group.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has not had to deal with shockwaves