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Practice paper

Banking system stress testing and COVID-19: A first summary appraisal

Jérôme Henry
Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 14 (1), 7-24 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.69554/PMRB2458

Abstract

This paper dicusses the special banking system stress tests which central banks for the USA, the UK and the euro area published shortly after the outbreak of COVID-19. Based on the limited quantitative information available on a comparable basis, this paper discusses how the results seem broadly consistent across institutions as well as with previously conducted exercises, once accounting for the respective differences in scenario severity. The paper also discusses how central banks identified specific design features characterising these COVID-19 exercises, employing the typology put forward in the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Financial Stability Institute (FSI) insights #12 — considering three building blocks: governance, implementation and outcomes. In particular, these special exercises set a new, more demanding benchmark for scenario adversity. Top-down modelling was also used to a larger extent to deal with uncertainty via alternative scenarios and to assess the impact of policies. Moreover, only aggregate results were published, with limited information on the results across banks. Finally, the connection with supervisory decisions appeared loose at most. The latter two features are not expected to remain in subsequent regular supervisory system-wide exercises. At the same time, the granularity of information collected, the banks in scope or the treatment of spillovers and feedbacks largely remained in line with standard supervisory stress-testing practices. This admittedly came short of what could be needed to get a more complete assessment of the impact of this specific crisis, from both a microprudential or macroprudential perspective. In particular, sector-specific information was sparse and banks’ credit deleveraging explored only for the UK. Looking ahead, it appeared that stress-testing models can represent a valuable forecasting and monitoring tool, especially when baseline conditions are adverse enough and uncertainty prevails. The review also suggests that bottom-up and top-down system-wide supervisory stress-test results could coexist, thereby giving further concrete relevance to recent proposals on the future of European Union area-wide stress tests.

Keywords: stress test; COVID-19; macroprudential; microprudential; scenario; banks

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Author's Biography

Jérôme Henry is Principal Adviser in the European Central Bank (ECB) DG for macroprudential policies and financial stability. His tasks relate to stresstesting infrastructure and financial stability assessments. He has led the stress-test quality assurance of the ECB/Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Comprehensive Assessment. He is also active in various ECB, European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and European Banking Authority (EBA) fora. Mr Henry has published his research in a number of international journals, such as the IMF Staff Papers, Econometrics Journal, Economic Modelling, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Economic Letters, Review of Economics and Statistics, Annales d’Economie et de Statistique, as well as in books with Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Economica. He is also a founding member of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) Euro-Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN). Mr Henry is a graduate from the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE) and holds a PhD in economics from the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne and a diploma in history from the University of Paris Sorbonne.

Citation

Henry, Jérôme (2020, December 1). Banking system stress testing and COVID-19: A first summary appraisal. In the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, Volume 14, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.69554/PMRB2458.

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cover image, Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions
Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions
Volume 14 / Issue 1
© Henry Stewart
Publications LLP

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