Special Correspondent - 2010-04-17 10:20
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Statistics Department and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Secretariat jointly organized a conference on April 8 and 9, 2010, on the Financial Crisis and Information Gaps. Senior officials from G-20 economies, other FSB members, and representatives from international institutions took part. The conference was hosted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland.
The conference was organized as part of the consultation process to develop a concrete plan of action to implement the 20 recommendations in the report “The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps,†that were endorsed at the meeting of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in St. Andrews, Scotland on November 7, 2009. The report identified data gaps in assessing the build-up of risks in the financial sector, understanding international network connections, and monitoring vulnerabilities of domestic economies to shocks. It made recommendations to close these gaps and to improve the communication of official statistics.
The joint conference sought participants' views on action plans to address each of the recommendations and the required timeline. Participants discussed the pertinent issues in developing the plans, and through break-out groups discussed challenges and constraints in implementation. The conference recognized that some of the most challenging recommendations to implementsuch as measuring aggregate leverage and maturity mismatches, and gaining a better understanding of financial networkswere among the most relevant for financial stability analysis.
The outcomes from the conference will inform the preparation of the progress report requested by the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for their meeting on June 4 and 5, 2010.