August 3, 2012 - Stress tests in the banking industry should be conducted on financiers of all sizes, a new report has stated.

At present, regulators across the world are tending to focus these investigations solely on the operations of major lenders on the basis that such firms have the biggest influence on the global financial system.

However, researchers from Zurich University have created a new tool called DebtRank, which challenges the supposition that the largest banks are the companies that need the closest and most strict supervision, Reuters reports.

Stefano Battison, leader of the study, told the news source there is "more to systemic importance than asset size".

"You can easily have two banks with the same balance-sheet size that have a completely different impact," he added.

Mr Battison went on to say that smaller financiers can be the source of significant issues in the banking industry, despite the fact they hold far fewer assets than other organizations in the sector.