Shadow banking industry grows to $67 trillion industry according to regulators

And the growth of this area continues. And yes, that is T as in trillion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...s-to-67-trillion-industry-regulators-say.html

I don't think the current crisis can be attributed primarily to shadow banking by any means. This just shows that Glass-Steagall naturally became less effective than it once was, which is why Graham-Leach-Bliley was probably a smaller factor in this crisis than some suggest.

Shadow banking has a role it can fill to increase liquidity, etc. It is capital requirements and greater transparency that need to catch up with it before the normal institutions use it to go overboard though.