In late 2024, the Financial Stability Authority (FFSA) conducted a test on the depositor and account data needed for the payment of deposit guarantee compensations. Based on the testing, it can be concluded that deposit banks are well prepared to provide the FFSA with depositor and account data in accordance with the reporting instructions. The FFSA has submitted feedback reports on the testing to the banks at the end of January 2025. Bank-specific reports highlight observations made during testing and potential needs for rectification. The tests revealed no critical errors in any bank’s data that would prevent the Authority from performing its statutory deposit guarantee tasks.
Providing these data is a statutory obligation of banks, regularly monitored and tested by the FFSA. Continuous testing ensures that the data provided by banks comply with pre-defined criteria in both qualitative and technical terms, which is essential for the completion of the deposit guarantee payment process within seven working days.
The testing mainly utilises automated checks to compare the data provided by banks with the definitions in the FFSA’s reporting instructions. In addition to this continuous monitoring and testing, the FFSA regularly conducts more extensive testing of depositor and account data provided by banks. In this case, in addition to automation, FFSA’s specialist conduct manual testing on a randomly selected sample to verify the accuracy of the data of individual depositors and to examine the content of the reported data in more detail.
Deposits are protected by the statutory deposit guarantee scheme, which falls under the responsibility of FFSA in Finland. The readiness of the FFSA to pay deposit guarantee compensations to depositors of insolvent banks is regularly tested with various simulated exercises*. In addition to the FFSA’s operational capability, the quality of depositor and account data provided by deposit banks to the FFSA play an important role in any compensation situation.
More information: Deposit Guarantee Expert Anna Kanninen ([email protected])
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*The latest extensive exercise in spring 2024 showed that the FFSA’s own systems and processes are in order and the payment can be organised within seven working days as required by law. Read more about the 2024 excercise and about developing FFSA's operational readiness (FFSA's press release 10 June 2024).
Read more about reporting requirements related to the deposit guarantee scheme.
Read more about the Financial Stability Authority's current topics on our website.
