Investigation into the International Financial Reporting Standards 9 model flaws exposed during the pandemic

Orientation: Market events during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposed flaws in the econometric models used to derive International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 impairments. Models were unable to capture the level of government intervention or predict the economic recovery process because of the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. Research purpose: This study examines the causes of the challenges experienced with the IFRS 9 models during the pandemic and approaches to minimise this risk in the future. Motivation for the study: Structural correlation breaks forced banks to replace the IFRS 9 models with expert overlays or rapidly rebuild the models to reduce impairment volatility and manage the impact on earnings. Expert judgement may lead to biased outcomes. Research approach/design and method: Behavioural finance theory suggests that emotion and cognitive biases often lead to irrational investment decisions with disastrous consequences to the market. The link between market sentiment and economic outcomes is tested with natural language processing. Archimedean copulas are used to compare the dependence structures of market variables between different stress periods. Main findings: Market sentiment is closely related to the trends observed in major macroeconomic indicators. The nature of the dependence structures differs between stress periods. Practical/managerial implications: Sentiment may be a valuable exogenous variable to incorporate into economic forecast models. Learnings from one stress period are not necessarily applicable to another. Contribution/value-add: Government intervention and market sentiment had a significant impact on the economic outcomes and correlation breaks observed during the pandemic. Developing bespoke models for the different phases of the economic cycle may not necessarily lead to improved outcomes

The Governance and Disclosure of IFRS 9 Economic Scenarios

Extraordinary economic conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic caused many IFRS 9 impairment models to produce unreliable results. Severe market reactions, resulting from unprecedented events, prompted swift action from the regulatory authorities to maintain the financial system’s stability. Banks managed the uncertainty and volatility in the models with expert overlays, increasing the risk of biased outcomes. This study examines new ways of enhancing the governance and transparency of the IFRS 9 economic scenarios within banks and suggests additional financial disclosures. Benchmarking is proposed as a useful tool to evaluate the IFRS 9 economic scenarios and ensure effective challenge as part of a model risk governance framework. Archimedean copulas are used to generate objective economic benchmarks. Ideas around benchmarking are illustrated for a set of South African economic variables, and the outcomes are compared to the IFRS 9 scenarios published by the six biggest South African banks in their annual financial statements during the pandemic