Brussels, 18/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is investing €1.8 million in a research project to develop new systemic risk indicators for “early warning systems” that could alert governments and bankers to impending financial crises in the earliest stages and take early action to stop them from spreading. Researchers from universities in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, experts at Yahoo! and the European Central Bank will investigate how financial institutions are exposed to systemic risk as a result of complex, highly inter-connected digital information and transaction systems. Based on a new multi-disciplinary research approach, the project will analyse the complex system of global, ICT (information and communication technology)-based financial transactions, along with internet search queries, to monitor the build-up of risk in the financial system and the economy as a whole. (I.L./transl.rt)