Banking regulator unwinding temporary rules aimed at helping weather the pandemic

Banking regulator unwinding temporary rules aimed at helping weather the pandemic

The federal banking regulator is rolling back temporary changes it put in place last year to help the country’s banks weather the pandemic.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions says now that financial markets have stabilized, the rules regarding market risk capital requirements will also be returned to what they were before the pandemic.

Last year, OSFI made temporary regulatory adjustments to help the banks in terms of their capital, liquidity and reporting requirements.

The changes included a reduction in the stressed value at risk (SVaR) multiplier which is used to help assess the capital adequacy of an institution.

The reduction was meant to help give banks flexibility in addressing stressed conditions triggered by the pandemic.

OSFI says that as of May 1, federally regulated deposit-taking institutions that are subject to market risk requirements should restore their risk multipliers to the levels that were in place before the changes last year.

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Published at Tue, 16 Mar 2021 15:52:13 +0000