IMF Staff Country Reports

This paper discusses Ireland’s technical note on financial safety nets and crisis management. This note assesses the bank recovery, resolution, and crisis preparedness regime in Ireland. It analyzes laws, policies, procedures, institutional capacity and coordination arrangements for bank failure resolution and for managing financial distress and crises. The assessment is focused on banks under the direct remit of the Central Bank of Ireland and does not evaluate the role played by the European Central Bank and the Single Resolution Board for Ireland’s largest banks. The note also assesses steps toward adopting a recovery and resolution regime for insurers. Substantive efforts have been made to propose a resolution regime for insurers and to identify scope for improving the existing insolvency framework as it applies to insurers. This note recommends that the Department of Finance should explore providing statutory protections to persons selected by the Central Bank albeit appointed by the Court for resolution purposes. It also recommends that the Central Bank and Department of Finance should seek the views of the competition authority on the extent to which resolution regime legislation overrides national competition rules.