MaRs, an internal network for macro-prudential research, was launched in Spring 2010 by the European System of Central Banks, which consists of the 27 European Union (EU) national central banks and the ECB.

The financial and economic crisis that started in summer 2007 has shown that the macro-prudential aspects of financial supervision and regulation need to be significantly strengthened. As a result, in autumn 2010 the EU agreed to establish the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), which held its inaugural meeting in January 2011 and has the tasks of identifying and assessing emerging systemic risks, warning about material risks and making policy recommendations on how to contain them. However, considerable gaps remain in the analytical underpinnings of macro-prudential supervision and regulation.  Report