Threats to financial stability have abated in the last year, the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research said today.

However, threats remain and chief among them are vulnerabilities in markets for securities financing transactions and credit, vulnerabilities to an increase in interest rates and volatility, operational risks, and uncertainty about the U.S. fiscal policy outlook, the agency said in its annual report.

Looking at the year ahead, OFR announced it will continue to analyze the asset management industry, focusing on risks and vulnerabilities of hedge funds and other private funds using data from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Form PFs (Private Fund) that the businesses have filed and to fill in data gaps for the industry.

The agency is particularly concerned about data gaps about separate accounts managed by registered investment advisors, banks and insurance companies amounting to more than $25 trillion and representing about half the assets under management in the U.S.

For some firms, separate accounts represent a significantly larger percentage of assets under managementthan registered funds.

Because of the lack of information about this giant investment pool, OFR said regulators cannot evaluate how separate account exposures or asset sales could affect markets.