U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said on Friday that the nonbank financial sector today is less vulnerable to the type of shocks that played a key role in spreading the U.S. financial crisis. Fischer, who chairs a Fed subcommittee on financial stability, said there is less leverage, less use of securitization, and more moderate reliance on short-term funding among the insurance companies, mutual funds, money market funds and hedge funds that make up the U.S.'s sprawling nonbank financial sector. "At this stage of the recovery, there are signs of reduced nonbank financial sector ... (full story)