Financial Sector Surveillance

Source details

Target audience:
- Junior to senior government officials tasked with surveillance of the financial sector, especially staff of the central bank, financial regulators, and other agencies that engage in macroprudential oversight.
Qualifications:
- Expected: a degree in economics or finance, preferably at the master's level, or equivalent work experience.
- Required skills: good quantitative skills; proficiency in the use of computers to analyze data.
- Recommended: completion of the online Financial Market Analysis (FMAx) course.
- Practical tools: familiarity with the basics of Microsoft Excel, since many workshops use Excel worksheets.

Introduces key concepts and tools used in the identification and assessment of financial sector vulnerabilities and sources of strength.
Provides a basic toolkit to assess financial sector risks and measure them against existing capital and liquidity buffers in the financial system.
Focuses on early identification of macro-financial imbalances and analysis of the transmission of financial distress across institutions, markets, and economic sectors, with the objective of reducing the likelihood and the severity of financial crises.
Uses a combination of lectures and hands-on workshops that allow participants to apply essential risk assessment techniques.

Measure the main risks facing banks (e.g., credit, market, liquidity, funding) and their respective capital and liquidity buffers, from a systemic financial stability perspective.
Design and perform basic stress tests of solvency and liquidity and interpret the results.
Understand the main climate risk drivers and transmission channels to financial institutions balance sheets and perform basic climate stress tests.
Recognize the importance of nonbank financial intermediaries and their links to banks.
Assess macro-financial linkages, including the links between the financial sector, the government, and the real economy, along with potential amplification mechanisms.
Track the buildup of systemic risk and vulnerabilities associated with credit, leverage, balance sheet mismatches, and interconnectedness.
Assess how shocks can amplify throughout the financial system, e.g., through adverse liquidity spirals or feedback effects between asset prices and leverage.

IMF offers online training to government officials and the public as part of its capacity development portfolio.