The Federal Reserve Board has created a new research office dedicated to supporting its expanded role in ensuring financial stability.

The Fed said Thursday that it has established the Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research, which will bring together economists, banking supervisors, market experts, and others, and will be dedicated to supporting the Fed’s financial stability responsibilities.

The new office will develop and coordinate efforts to identify and analyze potential risks to the financial system and the broader economy, including through the monitoring of asset prices, leverage, financial flows, and other market risk indicators. It will also follow developments at key institutions, analyze policies designed to promote financial stability, support the Fed’s supervision of large financial institutions and its participation on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

“The financial stability team will play an important role in implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, in our oversight of systemically important financial institutions, and in our overall surveillance of the financial markets and the economy,” said Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke.

The Fed appointed one of its economists, J. Nellie Liang, as its director. Liang joined the Fed in 1986, acting most recently as a senior associate director in the Division of Research and Statistics.

IE