High-Level Conference on Financial Crisis and Information Gaps

Conference co-hosted by the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board

Basel, Switzerland, April 8-9, 2010

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Statistics Department (STA) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Secretariat jointly organized a conference on April 8 and 9, 2010, on the Financial Crisis and Information Gaps. Senior officials from G-20 economies, other FSB members, and representatives from international institutions took part. The conference was hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland.

The conference was organized as part of the consultation process to develop a concrete plan of action to implement the 20 recommendations in the report "The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps", that were endorsed at the meeting of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in St. Andrews, Scotland on November 7, 2009. The main purpose of the conference was to obtain participants' views on the modalities of implementing actions to address the gaps identified in the G-20 recommendations, and the required timeline. The conclusions reached will inform the preparation of the follow up report requested by the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors for their upcoming meeting in June 2010. Participants discussed the pertinent issues in developing the plans, and through break-out groups discussed challenges and constraints in implementation. Alfredo Leone (Deputy Director, IMF/STA) and Nigel Jenkinson (Adviser, FSB Secretariat) co-chaired the conference. The summary proceedings and related material are as follows:


Disclaimer
This website contains papers and web links to papers that were presented at the conference. The views expressed in these papers are those of the authors only, and the presence of them, or of links to them, on the IMF website does not imply that the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management endorses or shares the views expressed in the papers.

AGENDA

Thursday, April 8, 2010
9:00 a.m. Registration and coffee
9:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductory Remarks
Hervé Hannoun, Deputy General Manager, Bank for International Settlements
• Nigel Jenkinson, Adviser, Financial Stability Board
• Alfredo Leone, Deputy Director, Statistics Department, IMF
9:50 a.m. Session 1: Setting the Context: Overview of the G-20 Work and (recommendation # 1)1
• Alfredo Leone, Deputy Director, Statistics Department, IMF
10:15 a.m. Session 2: Building on Existing Initiatives
This session discusses those recommendations that are intended to strengthen existing initiatives
• Securities statistics: (recommendation # 7), ECB
• CPIS and IBS (recommendations # 10, # 11, and # 12), IMF, BIS
• Sectoral accounts (recommendation # 15), IMF
• Government statistics (recommendation # 17), IMF
• Public sector debt (recommendation # 18), World Bank
1:00 p.m. Lunch
2:15 p.m. Session 3: Financial Sector and Markets
This session discusses those recommendations that are designed to improve data on the financial sector and markets
• FSIs (recommendation # 2), IMF
• Tail risks in the financial sector (recommendation # 3), IMF
• Leverage and Maturity (recommendation # 4), IMF
• Leverage and Maturity (recommendation # 4), BIS
• Credit default swaps (recommendation # 5), BIS
• Structured products (recommendation # 6), IOSCO
• Real estate prices (recommendation # 19), Eurostat, BIS
5:30 p.m. Close
7:00 p.m. Conference Dinner (18th Floor BIS)
1The recommendations noted on this agenda are those in the report to the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central bank Governors. The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps, prepared by the IMF staff and the FSB Secretariat (October 29, 2009).
Friday, April 9, 2010
8:30 a.m. Arrival and coffee
9:00 a.m. Session 4: The New Challenges
This session discusses those recommendations that require new research
• Systemic Institutions (recommendations # 8 and # 9), FSB
• Cross border exposures of nonbank financial institutions and nonfinancial corporations (recommendations # 13 and # 14), BIS
• Distributional information (recommendation # 16), OECD
11:00 a.m. Session 5: Break-out groups discussing challenges in implementing the G20 recommendations. The intention is to divide participants into three groups to discuss the plans presented for implementing the recommendations, and for each group to report back to conference after lunch
1:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. Session 6: Principal Global Indicators (recommendation # 20)
The Principal Global Indicators Website was launched in 2009 by the Inter Agency Group on Economics and Financial Statistics. It is to be presented to the conference by IMF staff
• Website presentation, IMF
3:00 p.m. Session 7: Reports from breakout groups
4:00 p.m. Session 8: Conclusions and next steps
4:30 p.m. Close