Press release after the meeting of the Financial Stability Committee on macroprudential supervision

Date of publication:

The meeting of the Financial Stability Committee on macroprudential supervision of 23 September 2022 was attended by:

  • Paweł Szałamacha, Member of the Management Board of Narodowy Bank Polski as the Chair of the Committee,
  • Piotr Patkowski, Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Finance,
  • Marcin Mikołajczyk, Deputy Chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority,
  • Tomasz Obal, Member of the Management Board of the Bank Guarantee Fund.

Performing its statutory duties, the Committee passed a resolution on a recommendation addressed to the Minister of Finance on maintaining the countercyclical buffer rate at 0% in the third quarter of 2022. The representative of the Minister of Finance agreed with the recommendation and acknowledged that there is no need to take legislative action in…

The Committee members discussed the sources of risk in the Polish financial system and its environment, identified in the cyclical survey conducted among the institutions represented in the Financial Stability Committee. According to the Committee, the nature and hierarchy of risk sources had not changed in comparison to the situation in the previous quarter. Legal risk associated with the portfolio of FX housing loans and the distressed financial situation of some credit institutions remain the most critical sources of risk to the financial system. The Committee still sees as significant the regional (geopolitical) risk posed by the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine. This risk entails the presently elevated inflation level and threats to the pace of economic growth at home and abroad. The situation is generating uncertainty and significantly worsing the outlook for the functioning of the economy and the financial system.

The Committee discussed current trends in the domestic residential real estate market. Real estate prices continue to grow, particularly in nominal terms, while remaining moderate in real terms, i.e. taking into account wage growth. The Committee noted a substantial decline in lending in the housing loan segment.

The Committee briefed itself on the current situation relating to the implementation of borrowers’ support programmes due to 1) the use of loan holidays, and 2) assistance from the Borrowers’ Support Fund and its impact on the financial situation of banks.

The meeting discussed the results of the review of the possibility to use the systemic risk buffer and other capital buffers to enhance the resilience of banks in Poland. In the Committee’s view, effective action calls for a coordination of micro- and macro-supervisory policy requirements for total capital requirements effectively applicable to banks.

At the request of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, the Committee issued opinions on the identification of other systemically important institutions (O-SII) and the imposition of an O-SII buffer. The identification of the institutions and the calibration of the buffers were carried out with the use of new methodology, which is in line with FSC Resolution No. 60/2022 on the recommendation on the methodology, criteria for the identification and calibration of the O-SII buffers .

Implementing the existing recommendation of the European Systemic Risk Board on the assessment of cross-border effects of and voluntary reciprocity for macroprudential policy measures, the Committee studied the results of:

  • the monitoring of the exposures of the Polish banking sector in Luxembourg,
  • analyses of the exposures of the Polish banking sector in Germany,

in both concluding that there existed reasons justifying non-reciprocity of the macroprudential instruments introduced in these countries.

The next regular meeting of the Committee on macroprudential supervision has been scheduled for December 2022.