Previous post Next post

Fritz Zurbrügg: Macroprudential policy beyond the pandemic: Taking stock and looking ahead

In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), national regulators and international institutions joined forces to build the foundations of our current macroprudential frameworks. These comprise policies aimed at containing the build-up of vulnerabilities to which the banking sector is exposed, and at strengthening banking sector resilience. By pursuing these objectives, macroprudential policy contributes to financial stability, which is essential to achieving more stable economic growth.

Experience so far shows that macroprudential instruments have helped to slow down the build-up of vulnerabilities, without being able to prevent them completely. Even more importantly, macroprudential instruments have contributed to an increase in banking sector capitalisation, which has strengthened banks’ resilience. The importance of resilience was particularly evident during the coronavirus pandemic. Among other factors, banks’ substantial capital buffers have enabled them to continue lending to the real economy, thereby contributing to the recovery.

Financial system vulnerabilities have increased since the start of the pandemic. Several national authorities and international institutions have highlighted stretched valuations, in particular in real estate markets. Policymakers in many countries have already responded to these developments by tightening macroprudential policy.

In Switzerland too, vulnerabilities in the residential real estate and mortgage markets have increased since the start of the pandemic. Numerous indicators point towards increasing overvaluations in the residential real estate market. At the same time, affordability risks have risen over recent years. To maintain banking sector resilience in the face of these increased vulnerabilities, the Federal Council reactivated the sectoral countercyclical capital buffer (SCCyB) in January this year to a level above the pre-pandemic one, following a proposal by the Swiss National Bank.

Going forward, the resilience of the Swiss banking sector must be preserved. This implies maintaining the structural capital buffers introduced in response to the GFC and adjusting capital buffers in response to the development of vulnerabilities in the mortgage and residential real estate markets, as evidenced by the recent reactivation of the SCCyB.

 

 

Full story here Are you the author?
Fritz Zurbrügg
Effective August 2012, the Federal Council appointed Fritz Zurbrügg as Member of the SNB’s Governing Board. At the same time, he became Head of Department III (Financial Markets, Banking Operations and Information Technology). With effect from 1 July 2015, the Federal Council appointed him Vice Chairman of the Governing Board. With this position, he also took over management of Department II (Financial Stability, Cash, Finance and Risk) in Berne.Fritz Zurbrügg was born in Zurich in 1960. He studied economics at the University of Berne, completing his degree in 1985 and his doctorate in 1989. Also in 1989, Fritz Zurbrügg joined the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) in Berne.
Previous post See more for 1.) SNB Press Releases Next post
Tags: ,

Permanent link to this article: https://snbchf.com/2022/03/2022-03-29-fritz-zurbrugg-macroprudential-policy-pandemic-taking-stock-looking/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.