The question raises firstly the issue of the definition of systemic risks. Although there have been several definitions proposed, it is widely accepted that it is a flexible notion, difficult to capture in one sentence, and changing depending on time and context. Also systemic features cannot be analyzed only from the side of the individual financial institutions, or even of a group of parent and subsidiaries. Finally one has systemic events: the suspension of redemptions in two investment funds lead to systemic concerns in early august 2008.

So what is systemic is extremely difficult to define ex ante, and it is probably better that we do not define it too clearly: "constructive ambiguity", that great invention of central bankers, is the appropriate approach here too.