Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority - Finansinspektionen - And The Riksbank Start Council For Cooperation On Macroprudential Policy

To mitigate risks to the financial system, Finansinspektionen (FI) and the Riksbank are establishing a council for cooperation on macroprudential policy.

Both Finansinspektionen (FI) and the Riksbank have the task of promoting a stable financial system. Part of this task entails mitigating risks to the system as a whole.

Now the authorities are establishing a council for cooperation to intensify this preventive work. The idea is that this council will be a forum where assessments of risk and questions regarding macroprudential policy are discussed jointly.

The council will meet twice a year and the members are the Riksbank Governor, the Director General of FI, one of the deputy governors, the head of the Riksbank’s Financial Stability Department, and the chief economist and chief legal counsel at the Finansinspektionen. The council’s first meeting is planned for 24 February.

Background
The cooperation between FI and the Riksbank has previously been outlined in the so-called four-party agreement*. The new council supplements the agreement by further developing the authorities' cooperation on preventive macroprudential policy.

FI and the Riksbank will continue to make independent decisions within their areas of responsibility in accordance with the decision-making processes that apply at the respective authorities. The new council will thus not alter the independence, responsibility and decision-making rights of the respective authorities with regard to their tasks.

The Memorandum of Understanding on a council for cooperation will cease to apply if responsibilities and powers concerning macroprudential policy are regulated by law in some other way.

* Agreement between the Government Offices (Ministry of Finance), Sveriges Riksbank, Finansinspektionen and the Swedish National Debt Office regarding cooperation in the fields of financial stability and crisis management (May 2009)