Many of the existing tools that regulators have to address fire-sales associated with securities financing transactions (SFTs) are helpful in fortifying individual institutions, but fall short from a marketwide perspective, Federal Reserve Board governor Jeremy Stein argued in a recent speech.

The STF is a market where "a large number of borrowers finance the same securities on a short-term collateralised basis, with very high leverage – often in the range of 20-to-one, 50-to-one, or even higher