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Crisis Prevention: The International Agenda. Jonathan T. Fried Executive Director Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean International Monetary Fund. Outline. The Diagnosis: Underlying Causes of Crisis 2. The International Response Surveillance Asset and liability management
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Crisis Prevention: The International Agenda Jonathan T. Fried Executive Director Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean International Monetary Fund
Outline The Diagnosis: Underlying Causes of Crisis 2. The International Response Surveillance Asset and liability management Bond market development IMF facilities Debt Relief 3. Conclusion
The Diagnosis: Underlying Causes of Crisis Policy imbalances leading to financial vulnerabilities Weak, poorly-regulated financial systems that concentrate risk Institutional weakness in legal and accounting frameworks Information asymmetries that contribute to uncertainty and invite panic responses to bad news
The International Response (I): Surveillance Key service provided by the IMF Aids in crisis prevention by: Assessing fundamental risks, both external and domestic, with a focus on macro-critical issues Identifying weakness in prudential and regulatory frameworks Promoting best practice through the use of Standards and Codes
Surveillance, continued Experience shows surveillance could be improved by: Working to increase its candor and effectiveness Increasing the focus on financial sector More focus on macro-financial linkages Greater focus on FSAPs and integrating financial sector analyses Taking a more holistic look at exchange rates Developing new models Looking at them in from a multilateral perspective Increasing disclosure of findings
The International Response (II): Asset - Liability Management Identifying and reducing asset-liability mismatches Debt Management Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSAs): Designed to identify vulnerabilities in public sector balance sheets resulting from fiscal and macroeconomic developments and shocks Technical assistance
Asset - Liability Management, continued • Asset Management • Technical assistance in the design and management of wealth funds and reserve pooling arrangements • Advice on management of central bank reserves
The International Response (III): Developing Local Financial Markets Bond Markets • Original sin prevents sovereigns from borrowing long-term in their own currency and exposes them to risks • Deeper, more resilient domestic bond markets can reduce these risks • …and can foster the development of deeper, more liquid domestic capital markets
Developing Local Financial Markets, continued Area of major focus at present, requiring efforts along many dimensions: • Rule of law • Stable macroeconomic environment • Technical expertise: • Sound regulatory framework • Clearing and settlement systems • Sectoral regulations • Broadening investor base (e.g. facilitating investments by pension funds) • Transparency and international investor relations
The International Response (IV): The IMF’s Facilities IMF as a lender of last resort: • Its facilities – SBA and SRF – can help in liquidity crises, thereby having a deterrent effect on speculative attacks • In practice, it is difficult to distinguish liquidity from solvency crises • Precautionary SBAs and PSIs are currently the only pure crisis prevention facilities • Both are ill-suited for crisis prevention
The IMF’s Facilities, continued • IMF currently working on a purely preventative facility to plug the gap • Considering a “Reserve Augmentation Line” that would provide large sums unconditionally to qualifying countries • Several important issues • Lender and borrower moral hazard • Entry/exit problem • Rate of charge
The International Response (V): Debt Relief • HIPC and MDRI can be viewed as forms of crisis prevention • Reducing the debt service burden creates space for growth enhancing expenditures • Better economic outcomes reduce the likelihood of crisis • There is a debate: free-riders and non-concessional lending
Conclusion (I): Effective Surveillance is Fundamental Importance of surveillance hard to overstate • Ensures that countries are aware of flaws and vulnerabilities in their policy frameworks, and the likely source of shocks • Also ensures that markets have reliable information and analysis on the countries they invest in
Conclusion (II): Debt Management is Key Published DSAs provide countries and markets with good frameworks for analyzing a country’s risk profile: • Can lead countries to take corrective measures long before problems occur • Can also reduce speculative attacks in cases where vulnerabilities are low