The term ‘macro-prudential policy’ is relatively new, but many of the tools it encompasses are not. Central banks and financial regulators have always striven to keep the financial sector stable, both in their own jurisdictions and internationally. But while these efforts sometimes involved the use of formal powers, they were often a matter of informal scrutiny or collaboration. A central banker of 1989 transported forward 30 years would be struck by the growth in the formal powers granted to