Risks to macroeconomic stability posed by excessive private leverage are significantly amplified by tax distortions. 'Debt bias' (tax provisions favoring finance by debt rather than equity) has increased leverage in both the household and corporate sectors, and is now widely recognized as a...

Banking crises have led many countries to consider deposit insuranceschemes to protect depositors and the banking system itself from the impact of bank failures. But should society be unconditionally responsible for underwiting banking decisions, even those imprudentlytaken? This paper considers...

Banks will want to influence the bank regulator to favor their interests, and they typically have the means to do so. It is shown that such ""regulatory capture"" in banking does not imply ineffectual regulation; a ""captured"" regulator may impose very tight, costly prudential requirements to...

Recapitalizing banks in a systemic crisis is a complex medium-term process that requires significant government intervention and careful management at both the strategic and individual bank levels. This paper highlights the range of operational and strategic issues to be addressed and the...

This Technical Note reviews banking sector soundness and stress testing in Serbia. Serbia’s banking sector is well capitalized and liquid, but the corporate sector’s weak performance is a source of concern because of its adverse impact on nonperforming loans. Stress tests indicate that banks...

The easing of controls on interest rates has led to higher interest rate volatility in India. Hence, there is a need to measure and monitor the interest rate exposure of Indian banks. Using publicly available information, this paper attempts to assess the interest rate risk carried by a sample...

Australia’s four largest banks can be considered domestically systemic. They make up the lion’s share of the banking system, use similar business models, and are interconnected. The top four banks are relatively similar in terms of systemic importance, partly reflecting the authorities’...

This technical note summarizes stress tests undertaken for the Czech banking system as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Update. The tests were tailored to capture the specificities of the Czech banking system, characterized by a high share of foreign-owned banks. The...

This technical note focuses on the stress testing exercise in 2010 for the financial sector assessment program based on the existing approaches of the Central Bank of Russia, as well as a separate bottom-up exercise. The tests covered broad ranges of risk factors. The single factor tests...

This paper describes the application of contingent claims analysis (CCA) and systemic CCA to the top four commercial banks in Sweden. The balance sheet stress tests for four major banks were complemented with tests based on the CCA framework, a risk-adjusted balance sheet relating bank asset...