WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve has broadened its oversight beyond banks and now monitors a wide-range of financial institutions that could hasten another financial crisis, Chairman Ben Bernanke said today.

Bernanke said the Fed still is monitoring banks and other systematically important financial institutions. But it has widened its scope to include other important participants that could either trigger a crisis or make the system more vulnerable.

Chief among them is the so-called shadow banking system, which includes loans that are turned into securities and sold to investors. It was the breakdown of lending in the area of sub-prime mortgages that helped trigger the 2008 crisis.

In a speech to a banking conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Bernanke said the Fed is also looking more closely at asset markets and the nonfinancial sector, which includes consumers and businesses.

“Probably our best defense against complacency during extended periods of calm is careful monitoring for signs of emerging vulnerabilities,” Bernanke said.

The 2008 financial crisis helped push the country into the worst recession since the 1930s. Bernanke said the country is still suffering from the effects of the crisis and economic downturn.