The Instruments of Macro-Prudential Policy

The recent global crisis revealed a role for macro-prudential policy or measures to mitigate systemic risk. In Ireland, the high costs of the recent banking crisis showed that forward-looking risk assessments and pre-emptive policy action are important to ensure that the future probability of such a crisis reoccurring is reduced. Macro-prudential policies primarily aim to complement regulatory oversight of individual firms and build resilience, initially in the banking sector. A secondary (albeit more ambitious) goal is to dampen the volatility of the financial cycle and reduce the potential for destabilising imbalances within the financial system to accumulate. This paper focuses on the banking sector and the various measures available to macro-prudential authorities to mitigate this risk.