The secretary-general of the international association of securities regulators has warned policy-makers still understand alarmingly little about global shadow banking markets.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions' David Wright said on Tuesday that a lack of readily-available data on cross-border financial activity had led to a poor understanding of links in the non-bank funding markets, defined as shadow banking. These include securitisation, securities lending and repo, and money market funds, as well as non-bank and non-insurance systemically important financial institutions.