The priority for those framing Europe's new financial regulations should be to encourage rather than impede the emergence of new providers of finance, including insurers, mutual funds, specialist lenders or even larger companies in the supply chain.

WSJ: Rock Star Draghi Needs a New Song for Europe

In America, Britain and even in parts of continental Europe, the bull market has created a new, confident class of investors in shares and mutual funds who scour the booming personal-finance press for investment ideas.

ECONOMIST: Passing the buck | The

Last year the finance director of mid-sized Yamato Mutual Life Insurance hired U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to undertake the securitization of its 26-story main office in downtown Tokyo.

CNN: SELLING THE COMPANY CASTLE

It puts too much emphasis on bank lending at a time when commercial banks are losing out to new financial bodies, such as mutual funds and too little on equity finance.

ECONOMIST: America��s poorest places need investment

Mulvihill spent years haggling with the Ministry of Finance for licenses to operate institutional portfolios and mutual funds under one roof and make efficient use of Goldmans fund management and other resources.

FORBES: Where do you buy your rice cakes?

Most mutual fund managers don't, says Yakov Amihud, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

WSJ: Upside: How to Find a Fund Manager Who Can Beat the Market

The Federal Reserve responded with several programs, including a facility to finance bank purchases of high-quality asset-backed commercial paper from money market mutual funds.

FORBES: The Crisis and the Policy Response

The Reserve Bank of India said it would ban banks and non-finance companies from giving loans against units held in gold exchange-traded funds and gold mutual funds because these products are backed by bullion.

WSJ: India Extends Curbs on Lending Against Gold

This might happen when a Shariah-compliant company in a Shariah-compliant mutual fund acquires a forbidden company, the main business of which is in a forbidden industry such as finance or hog farming.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Shariah��s Black Box