IMF Staff Country Reports

This paper presents an assessment of compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision in El Salvador. The regulatory authority Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero (SSF) has taken a number of initiatives to strengthen and upgrade supervision. This includes, among others, a risk unit with specialized expertise and continued efforts to foster cross-border cooperation and coordination. Despite considerable efforts, for the SSF is commended for its efforts, the lack of regulation in practically all risk categories is a major impediment to further progress. The lack of standards in those areas, combined with severe shortcomings in legal protection and deficiencies in the remedial action framework for addressing minor transgressions, limits the SSF’s ability to address imprudent behavior by banks.