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

Date of publication:

The meeting of the Financial Stability Committee held on 18 June 2021 was attended by the following persons:

  • 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,
  • Piotr Tomaszewski, President of the Management Board of the Bank Guarantee Fund.

Performing its statutory duties, the Committee passed a resolution on the recommendation addressed to the Minister of Finance on maintaining the countercyclical buffer rate at 0% in the second quarter of 2021. The Ministry of Finance representative agreed with the recommendation and acknowledged that there is no need to take legislative measures in this area.

The Committee members acquainted themselves with the Financial Stability Report – June 2021 prepared by NBP. According to the Report, the COVID-19 pandemic fallout – despite its substantial impact on the real economy – poses no risk to Poland’s banking system stability. The financial sector has preserved the capacity to absorb losses thanks to the lack of significant financial imbalances in the pre-pandemic period, high capital levels in the banking system as well as fiscal, monetary and macroprudential policy support measures. The legal risk of the portfolio of FX mortgage loans has been found to be the major source of risk to financial stability. The line of judgement being developed by common courts and the anticipated ruling of the full bench of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland will weigh heavily on such a risk assessment. The Committee shared the assessment, and also pointed the risk associated with the declining profitability of banks shown in quarterly surveys carried out among the institutions represented in the Financial Stability Committee.

During the meeting the Committee members took note of current developments in the area of the legal risk of FX mortgage loans portfolio and progress in the work on the proposal to settle FX housing loan cases out of court. The members also discussed a potential need to take further macroprudential policy measures in this respect.

The Committee also approved the Annual Report on Macroprudential Supervision Activity of the Financial Stability Committee 2020. The Committee’s Report is a fulfilment of the obligations indicated in the Act on Macroprudential Supervision and will be submitted to the Polish Sejm by the President of NBP, who is the Chairman of the FSC-M, and then posted on the NBP website.

The Committee took the decision to notify the European Systemic Risk Board of lack of material third countries for the purposes of determining the countercyclical buffer rate and lack of significant exposures of Polish banks in Sweden, Belgium and Norway in connection with the use of the mechanism to reciprocate macroprudential instruments adopted in other countries.

The next regular meeting of the Committee on macroprudential supervision is scheduled for September 2021.