The Nordic Banking Crises: Pitfalls in Financial Liberalizations?

European I Department and Monetary and Exchange Affairs Departmen

Shining a Light on Debt

As the COVID-19 crisis lingers, emerging market and developing economies are entering perilous waters that evoke memories of past debt defaults. Although all countries amassed debt to fight the pandemic, the economic recovery in these economies substantially lags their advanced economy counterparts. Tighter monetary policies in advanced economies are poised to push up international interest rates, which tends to put pressure on currencies and heighten the odds of default. To complicate matters, the extent of many emerging market and developing economy liabilities and their terms aren’t fully known. If they are to foster a sustained recovery and limit the risk of a crisis, they must make a full accounting of hidden debts, both public and private

Organiser la résolution des crises bancaires transfrontières

The enhanced coordination proposal put forward by the IMF is a pragmatic approach to address the cross-border resolution challenges in a manner that is achievable in the near future. The approach would form the basis for incremental progress being made as more and more countries voluntarily adhere to the framework over time. The “ carrot” that would encourage countries to do so would be the possibility of a more effective and value-preserving international resolution. In the near term, a limited group of countries that already meet the standards could begin to cooperate amongst themselves. To the extent that these countries include the world’s principal financial centers, such cooperation would represent a major step forward. As other countries (e. g., developing countries and emerging markets) adhere to the standards over time, the circle of cooperation would expand. It would therefore represent a pragmatic and achievable mechanism for the strengthening of international cooperation worldwide. Classification JEL : F33, G01, G28.La coordination renforcée que propose le FMI adopte volontairement une approche pragmatique afin de répondre aux défis de la résolution transfrontière dans des délais réalistes. Elle pourrait constituer la base d’un dispositif progressif, auquel les pays adhéreraient au fil du temps. La «carotte » qui encouragerait les pays à le rejoindre serait la perspective d’une gestion de crise internationale plus efficace, moins destructrice de valeur. À court terme, un groupe restreint de pays qui satisfont déjà à ces normes pourraient commencer à coopérer entre eux. Ces pays incluant les principaux centres financiers du monde, cette coopération constituerait une avancée considérable. Lorsque d’autres pays (pays en développement, marchés émergents...) adhèreront, le cercle de la coopération s’élargirait progressivement. Il constituerait un mécanisme pragmatique et réalisable pour le renforcement d’une coopération à l’échelle mondiale. Classification JEL : F33, G01, G28.Jassaud Nadège, Pazarbasioglu Ceyla. Organiser la résolution des crises bancaires transfrontières. In: Revue d'économie financière, n°101, 2011. Le risque systémique 2. Repenser la supervision. pp. 205-217

The Nordic Banking Crisis

This study examines the banking crises in Finland, Norway and Sweden, which took place in the early 1990s, and draws some policy conclusions from their experiences. One key conclusion is that factors in addition to business cycle effects explain the Nordic countries' financial problems. Although the timing of the deregulation in all three countries coincided with a strongly expansionary macroeconomic momentum, the main reasons for the banking crises were the delayed policy responses, the structural characteristics of the financial systems, and the banks' inadequate internal risk-management controls.

Credibility and Crisis Stress Testing

Credibility is the bedrock of any crisis stress test. The use of stress tests to manage systemic risk was introduced by the U.S. authorities in 2009 in the form of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program. Since then, supervisory authorities in other jurisdictions have also conducted similar exercises. In some of those cases, the design and implementation of certain elements of the framework have been criticized for their lack of credibility. This paper proposes a set of guidelines for constructing an effective crisis stress test. It combines financial markets impact studies of previous exercises with relevant case study information gleaned from those experiences to identify the key elements and to formulate their appropriate design. Pertinent concepts, issues and nuances particular to crisis stress testing are also discussed. The findings may be useful for country authorities seeking to include stress tests in their crisis management arsenal, as well as for the design of crisis programs