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Standards assessments serve several important objectives but are not well integrated into Fund surveillance. Financial standards assessments, when undertaken in the context of FSAPs, are used to identify weaknesses in financial regulation and supervision, or other areas covered by international standards. However, those weaknesses are not specifically linked to the risks and vulnerabilities facing the financial sector. Conversely, the analysis of country-specific vulnerabilities in the FSAP does not contribute to targeting the standard assessment effort, since the assessment must be exhaustive and cover the entire standard.
This paper presents an assessment of the stability of the financial system in New Zealand. Imbalances in the housing market, banks’ concentrated exposures to the dairy sector, and their high reliance on wholesale offshore funding are the key macro-financial vulnerabilities. The banking sector has significant exposure to real estate and agriculture, is relatively dependent on foreign funding, and is dominated by four Australian subsidiaries. A sharp decline in the real estate market, a reversal of the recent recovery in dairy prices, deterioration in global economic conditions, and tightening in financial markets would adversely impact the system. Despite these vulnerabilities, the banking system is resilient to severe shocks. Strengthening the macroprudential framework is important.
From Fragmentation to Financial Integration in Europe is a comprehensive study of the European Union financial system. It provides an overview of the issues central to securing a safer financial system for the European Union and looks at the responses to the global financial crisis, both at the macro level—the pendulum of financial integration and fragmentation—and at the micro level—the institutional reforms that are taking place to address the crisis. The emerging financial sector management infrastructure, including the proposed Single Supervisory Mechanism and other elements of a banking union for the euro area, are also discussed in detail.
A new wave of technological innovations, often called “fintech,” is accelerating change in the financial sector. What impact might fintech have on financial services, and how should regulation respond? This paper sets out an economic framework for thinking through the channels by which fintech might provide solutions that respond to consumer needs for trust, security, privacy, and better services, change the competitive landscape, and affect regulation. It combines a broad discussion of trends across financial services with a focus on cross-border payments and especially the impact of distributed ledger technology. Overall, the paper finds that boundaries among different types of service providers are blurring; barriers to entry are changing; and improvements in cross-border payments are likely. It argues that regulatory authorities need to balance carefully efficiency and stability trade-offs in the face of rapid changes, and ensure that trust is maintained in an evolving financial system. It also highlights the importance of international cooperation.
This paper provides assessment of the current state of the implementation of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision in Germany. Since the last Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), German banking supervision has undergone profound changes, with approval of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Directive (CRD IV), establishment of the European Banking Authority, and creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The last FSAP (2011) found banking system supervision to be generally sound with some areas in need of improvement—although some of these issues have been addressed, others remain. While supervisory landscape in Germany evolves, it is crucial that supervisors communicate their expectations to banks and develop guidelines and regulations that can be used to substantiate enforceable measures.
This Report on Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) for Italy summarizes the findings and recommendations of the fiscal assessment of Italy’s economic policies. It highlights that while raising the bar for banking supervision, the Core Principles must be capable of application to a wide range of jurisdictions. The new methodology reinforces the concept of proportionality, both in terms of the expectations on supervisors and in terms of the standards that supervisors impose on banks. It recommends that a group-focused supervisory approach for the nationally significant insurers and sophisticated offsite monitoring together with ad hoc inspections for smaller entities is required.
This paper presents Austria’s 2019 Financial System Stability Assessment. The Austrian authorities have proactively strengthened the financial stability framework since the previous Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). The FSAP analysis suggests that banks are, in aggregate, resilient to severe macrofinancial shocks, although most banks would make use of capital conservation buffers. Mutual financial cooperation arrangements among banks act as a shock absorber for idiosyncratic shocks, but high financial interlinkages may fuel loss propagation in a systemic event. While a robust regulatory framework and prudential policy actions have lowered financial stability risks, challenges inc...
The October 2014 issue finds that six years after the start of the crisis, the global economic recovery continues to rely heavily on accommodative monetary policies in advanced economies. Monetary accommodation remains critical in supporting economies by encouraging economic risk taking in the form of increased real spending by households and greater willingness to invest and hire by businesses. However, prolonged monetary ease may also encourage excessive financial risk taking. Analytical chapters examine (1) the growth of shadow banking around the globe, assessing risks and discussing regulatory responses, and calling for a more encompassing (macroprudential) approach to regulation and for enhanced data provision; and (2) how conflicts of interest among bank managers, shareholders, and debt holders can lead to excessive bank risk taking from society’s point of view, finding no clear relation between bank risk and the level of executive compensation, but that a better alignment of bankers’ pay with long-term outcomes is associated with less risk.
Winner of the 2017 Jabuti Book Prize The Zika virus is devastating lives and communities. Children across the Americas are being born with severe disabilities because of it. Yet during the desolating outbreak, Brazil played host to both the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, leading many to suspect that the true impact of the virus has been subject to a cover-up of international proportions. Beginning in the northeast, where the devastation has been most felt, professor of bioethics and award-winning documentary filmmaker Debora Diniz travels across Brazil tracing the virus’s origin and spread. Along the journey she meets a host of fearless families, doctors and scientists uncovering the virus’s impact on local communities. In doing so Diniz paints a vivid picture of the Zika epidemic, exposing the Brazilian government’s complicity in allowing the virus to spread while championing the efforts of local doctors and mothers who, working together, are raising awareness of the virus and fighting for the rights of children affected by Zika.
Despite ongoing economic recovery and improvements in global financial stability, structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities remain in some important financial systems. The April 2011 Global Financial Stability Report highlights how risks have changed over the past six months, traces the sources and channels of financial distress with an emphasis on sovereign risk, notes the pressures arising from capital inflows in emerging economies, and discusses policy proposals under consideration to mend the global financial system.