Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)
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Overview and purpose
- The FSAP was established in 1999 as a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of a country’s financial sector.
- The FSAP is a key instrument of the Fund’s surveillance and provides important inputs to bilateral surveillance in the context of Article IV consultation.
- Financial stability assessments under the FSAP are a mandatory part of Article IV surveillance for members with Systemically Important Financial Sectors (SIFS) and are currently expected to take place every five or ten years depending on their relative systemic relevance in transmitting shocks across borders; for all other jurisdictions, participation in the program is voluntary.
- FSAPs in advanced economies are conducted by the IMF with a focus on assessing:
- the resilience of the financial sector,
- the quality of the regulatory and supervisory framework, and
- the capacity to manage and resolve financial crises.
- In developing and emerging market economies, FSAPs are conducted jointly with the World Bank and include a financial development assessment, which is the responsibility of the World Bank.
- FSAP findings produce recommendations of a micro- and macro-prudential nature and on developmental needs in developing and emerging market economies, tailored to country-specific circumstances.
- Recommendations are contained in an Aide Memoire, a confidential and comprehensive document left with national authorities at the end of the last FSAP mission.
- FSAPs conclude with the preparation of a Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA), which is discussed at the IMF Executive Board together with the country’s Article IV report. Publication of FSSAs is presumed, but voluntary.
- Individual country FSAPs may bring forward additional supporting documents.
Program cadence and 2025 focus
- Last Updated: July 23, 2026
- This year’s assessments include seven economies with systemically important financial sectors: China, Canada, Euro Area, France, India, and Switzerland, which are reviewed every five years; and the Slovak Republic, reviewed every 10 years.
- The FSAPs for Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Oman, and Moldova are being done on a voluntary basis since the authorities requested the assessments themselves.
Key country assessments and focal areas (2025 schedule)
- Azerbaijan
- The FSAP is taking place during a stronger domestic macro-financial environment compared to the last FSAP in 2015.
- The economy recovered from two downturns driven by the global oil price collapse in 2015 and COVID-19 in 2020.
- Assessment areas: vulnerabilities in the bank-dominated financial system, macroprudential policies, regulatory-supervisory framework, and the financial safety net; IMF focus on the Stability Module; World Bank conducted Development Module in 2022.
- Canada
- Review context: large, highly developed, and sophisticated financial system with accentuated vulnerabilities in the housing market and looming challenges from weaker global growth and rising geopolitical uncertainties.
- Assessment areas: vulnerabilities and risks in banks (including climate-related physical and transition risks), pension funds and insurance firms, corporate and household sectors; oversight of banks, nonbank deposit-taking institutions, insurance companies, pension funds, securities markets, and cyber resilience; adequacy of macroprudential policies, systemic liquidity, safety nets and crisis management, and the AML-CFT framework.
- China
- Assessment context: the second largest financial system in the world, including five Globally Systemically Important Banks, more than 300 percent of GDP in bank assets, and an extensive nonbank financial sector.
- FSAP takes place amid moderating growth, large local government debt overhang, and a property market slowdown.
- Assessment areas: readiness of crisis management and safety net framework; systemic liquidity management and financial stability oversight frameworks; strength of bank, insurance, securities and NBFI supervision; supervision of large “big tech” firms unique to China.
- Euro Area
- Focus: reforms to the prudential framework from a supranational perspective, including progress on Basel III, Solvency II, and renewed impetus on the Capital Market Union (viewed from a financial stability standpoint).
- Planned coverage: systemic risk monitoring of banks and nonbank financial institutions, interconnectedness and contagion, risks related to geopolitical issues, cyber security, pass through of past monetary policy tightening on deposit rates, funding costs, credit growth, and system-wide liquidity.
- Will analyze reforms needed to complete the Banking Union and strengthen the euro area crisis management framework, with a focus on lessons from the Spring 2023 bank failures in the US and Switzerland, including emergency liquidity assistance and the need for flexibility in resolution regimes and planning.
- France
- Assessment context: highly developed financial system dominated by large banking and insurance-focused conglomerates; large domestic money market and fixed income market interconnections.
- Workstreams: solvency and liquidity stress tests of the seven largest banks; impact of macroprudential measures introduced since the 2019 FSAP; a full Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) assessment; conglomerate supervision; cyber risk and readiness; operationalization of the EU financial safety net and crisis management framework.
- India
- Context: growth is the fastest among major advanced and emerging markets; since the last FSAP in 2017, significant recapitalization and consolidation of state-owned banks; fintech flourished with improved access to finance supported by digital public infrastructure.
- Core themes: new risks and oversight challenges from the rise in nonbank financial intermediation and their linkages to the dominant banking sector and among themselves; adapting the role of the state in the financial system to better serve India’s growth model; emerging risks from digitalization, especially cybersecurity challenges, and climate change.
- Moldova
- Context: economic recovery from adverse spillovers from the war in Ukraine with risks on inflation and growth arising from energy sector risks.
- Assessment areas: adequacy of solvency and liquidity buffers of the banking sector under stressed scenarios; interconnectedness in the financial system; appropriateness of macroprudential policies and tools; effectiveness of the NBM’s regulation and supervision of banks; financial integrity risks; operational readiness of financial safety nets.
- Oman
- Context: joint FSAP with the World Bank against heightened geopolitical tensions, potential disruptions in international trade, and tight monetary policy in several regions; economic transformation, entrepreneurship and innovation gaining traction.
- Assessment areas: resilience of the financial system under economic downturn scenarios; effectiveness of banking oversight and macroprudential frameworks; progress on crisis management and safety net frameworks; climate risk analysis; systemic liquidity management; banking oversight frameworks.
- Methodology: a full assessment of the quality of bank supervision using Basel Core Principles will be conducted covering conventional banks; a focused review of Islamic finance core principles is planned, covering Islamic banks and Islamic finance, the share of which is rising in the financial system.
- Slovak Republic
- Context: first FSAP under the 10-year mandatory cycle; since the previous FSAP in 2007, oversight changes include harmonization of regulation and supervision for less significant institutions, active use of macroprudential policies, and adoption of the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive; assessment occurs amid economic recovery, tight financial conditions, and indications of real estate overvaluation.
- Assessment areas: resilience of banks against external shocks and real estate sector risks; regulation and supervision of Less Significant Institutions; macroprudential policy framework; financial safety nets and crisis management frameworks; financial integrity.
- Switzerland
- Context: broadly stable macroeconomic environment, overvaluation in the real estate market, and the recent Credit Suisse crisis.
- Assessment areas: supervisory frameworks for banks (against the Basel Core Principles), Financial Market Infrastructures, and insurance and asset management sectors; frameworks for safety net and crisis management, including emergency liquidity assistance; risk analysis of the insurance sector and assessment of risks in smaller banks beyond systemically important banks; calibration and effectiveness of macroprudential policy given large exposure to the real estate market; financial integrity, mounting cyber risks, and new developments in fintech and crypto.
- Uzbekistan
- Context: the country’s first FSAP is taking place against the backdrop of a strong and resilient economy; since 2017, major reforms include exchange rate unification, price liberalization, and enhancements to the business environment; the financial sector has been growing very strongly and the state remains the dominant player.
- Assessment areas: system risks and vulnerabilities, regulation and supervision framework, and crisis management and safety net arrangements.
Analytical outputs and operational notes
- FSAPs produce country-specific recommendations addressing microprudential, macroprudential, and developmental policy needs in developing and emerging market economies.
- Aide Memoire: confidential, comprehensive document left with national authorities at the end of the last FSAP mission.
- FSAPs conclude with a Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) that is discussed at the IMF Executive Board together with the country’s Article IV report; publication of FSSAs is presumed, but voluntary.
- Advanced-economy FSAPs focus on resilience, regulatory and supervisory quality, and crisis management and resolution capacity; emerging-market FSAPs include the World Bank-led financial development assessment.
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