The Financial Stability Board (FSB) on Thursday announced that global policymakers meeting in London, England, have agreed on a work plan for 2017.
“The financial system has continued to function well, despite bouts of uncertainty and risk aversion,” the FSB says in a news release, although high sovereign and corporate debt levels, “remain a concern given ongoing economic uncertainty and signs of maturing credit cycles in some jurisdictions.”
Asset quality and profitability issues continue to weigh on bank valuations in advanced economies, the FSB notes, non-performing loans are increasing in some countries, and that some banks still need to repair their balance sheets. Nevertheless, the global financial system “is more resilient as a result of the regulatory reforms introduced following the 2008 financial crisis,” the FSB says, and stresses that those reforms must be completed to shore up the system.
The FSB also announced that the 2016 lists of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) and insurance companies (G-SIIs) have been approved and will be released on next Monday. The lists designating firms as systemically-important, which subjects them to tougher regulatory requirements, are updated annually each November.
Looking ahead, the FSB is continuing to work on a host of other issues, including addressing misconduct in the financial sector, recommendations regarding structural vulnerabilities from asset management activities, shadow banking, forthcoming guidance on climate-related disclosure, the resolvability of central counterparties (CCPs), and the development of a framework to assess the effects of its reforms.