BERLIN (MNI) – The financial sector has an important stake in a
stable financial system and therefore also in a well functioning
macro-prudential oversight and policy framework, ECB Vice President
Vitor Constancio said Tuesday.

The financial crisis has revealed a substantial policy gap between
financial stability oversight and targeted policy responses to mitigate
risks considered to be of a potentially systemic nature, Constancio said
in remarks prepared for delivery at the Euro Finance Week conference in
Frankfurt.

This deficit calls for the strengthening of the macro-prudential
approach to regulation and supervision at the national and international
level, he said.

“The industry needs to be closely involved in risk detection and
overall surveillance work, as information and insights from market
participants will be essential inputs,” Constancio stressed.

The financial crisis has shown how the materialisation of systemic
risks can have devastating effects on the financial sector and the
broader economy, he remarked.

“Although each institution may not, per se, be able to create
disruptive market conditions — at least in normal times — as the
financial crisis has shown, the collective positions of the financial
industry can have severe implications for financial stability, possibly
with repercussions in the broad economy,” the central banker elaborated.

“In this regard, we will send messages to the industry that we
trust will be heeded,” the ECB Vice President said.

Analytical tools to assess the severity of identified risks and
overall resilience of the financial system clearly include macro
stress-testing models, Constancio asserted.

The EU bank stress tests completed in July this year included
adverse scenarios that reflected severe assumptions, especially in
relation to sovereign risk and growth paths, the central banker
reminded.

“Such adverse scenarios, although not very likely to materialise in
practice, are useful components of the assessment of the resilience of
the financial system,” he said.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; twidder@marketnews.com

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