Press release 20 April 2020

Credit institutions’ additional capital requirements to ease in accordance with FIN-FSA Board’s preliminary decision

The Board of the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) decided on 17 March 2020 to ease the macroprudential buffer requirements. The notification period in accordance with EU regulation concerning this decision has now expired.

On 17 March 2020, the Board of the FIN-FSA adopted a preliminary decision to remove the additional capital requirement determined on the basis of the structural characteristics of the financial system (systemic risk buffer) from Finnish credit institutions. The FIN-FSA Board also decided to lower the additional capital requirement for other systemically important institutions (O-SII) in the case of OP Financial Group.

The final decision to ease the requirements was taken on 6 April 2020 and entered into force immediately. The aim of the decision is to mitigate the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the stability of the financial markets and promote credit institutions’ ability to finance the economy.

The FIN-FSA will closely monitor that banks use the positive effects of these measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis and not to channel them into the payment of dividends or performance bonuses.

Appendix

The Board’s final decision on the application of macroprudential instruments (pdf)