FFSA and Financial Stability Fund annual financial statements for 2021 published
The continuing COVID-19 pandemic created a sense of general uncertainty in the economy and financial markets and its presence was also felt in the seventh year of operation of the Financial Stability Authority. Although the pandemic did not cause serious problems in the financial markets in 2021, the risks in the banking sector due to that uncertainty and the difficulties that arose in making forecasts persist. Given the economic outlook and challenges for financial stability, plus, at the same time, the big changes in the banking sector’s operating environment, such as digitalisation, the green transition and the growing importance of cybersecurity, the work of the resolution authorities to ensure the resolvability of banks is more important than ever.
The work of the Authority to exert a social impact on crisis resolution and deposit guarantees proceeded in the year under review in accordance with the targets set. The general state of job satisfaction there remained high, despite the need to work remotely.
Effectiveness achieved in various areas
The Financial Stability authority achieved its profit targets satisfactorily and managed in particular to promote its internal crisis management capability development project that was launched in the summer of 2020. During the year the Finnish banks’ resolution scheme went mainly according to plan. The focus of the scheme has moved more obviously than before in the direction of evaluating the barriers to resolvability and the operational competence of individual institutions. The technical arrangements for deposit guarantees in crisis situations were shored up for the years to come, when competitive bidding was organised to find a supplier of an application solution for the Authority’s deposit guarantee payment system, which had a successful outcome.
Increase in the number of reimbursable deposits
The aim with the deposit protection fund is a legal commitment to a total for the reimbursable deposits held by banks based in Finland. The fund grew to around EUR 779 million during the year. By July 2024 it must have increased to a level that corresponds to 0.8% of the amount for reimbursable deposits that it covers. In 2021 the amount for reimbursable deposits rose by around 3%, which raises the estimated target for the fund to EUR 1.2 billion.
In the year, the Financial Stability Authority collected approximately EUR 270 million in EU stability contributions from credit institutions in Finland for the banking union’s Single Resolution Fund (SRF). The increase in reimbursable deposits also pushed up the SRF target, and in spring 2021 the Single Resolution Board (SRB) estimated that, to achieve the target by 2023, 1.35% of the amount for reimbursable deposits for 2020 would have to be collected. A total of around EUR 10.4 billion in EU stability contributions was collected from all the liable institutions established in the banking union’s area. This meant that the SRF increased to a value of some EUR 52 billion during the financial year.
More information: Tuija Taos, Director General (forename.surname(at)rvv.fi)
Financial Stability Authority’s financial statements and annual report (in Finnish)
Financial Stability Fund’s financial statements and annual report (in Finnish)
