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The risks of the world's asset management industry becoming "too big to fail" are rising, according to one of the Bank of England's most senior executives.
Andy Haldane, executive director for financial stability at the Bank, suggested there were worrying similarities between a rapidly growing asset management industry and the banking system that brought the global economy to its knees in 2008.
Considering whether asset management had "spawned similar such behemoths" to the banks bailed out by the taxpayer at the height of the crisis, Haldane said the industry was emerging as a "black swan risk".
"The top 10 asset managers account for just less than 30% of the sector, the top 10 banks a little more than 20%. Their balance sheets are also similarly sized," Haldane said in a speech at the London Business School on Friday.
He pointed out that BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, was about a third larger than Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the biggest bank.
"The good news here is that, unlike in banking, history is not littered with examples of failing funds wreaking havoc in financial markets.
"But, as any self-respecting asset manager would tell us, past performance is no guide to the future. This is especially true in an industry as large and as rapidly changing as asset management. Black swan risk in asset management may be real and rising."
Haldane, who will replace Spencer Dale as the Bank's chief economist from June, said the industry managed assets worth about $87tn (£53tn) globally, and could reach $400tn by 2050 amid rising population and wealth.
"If these trends are even roughly right, asset management may not only have come of age – we may be about to enter the age of asset management," he said.
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