Financial Stability Forum holds meeting at the Riksbank

Date 12/01/2007

The global federation Financial Stability Forum (FSF) will hold a meeting in Stockholm on 22-23 January with participants from more than 20 different countries. The meeting will gather together central bank governors, ministers and other senior officials from central banks, financial regulatory/supervisory authorities, finance ministries and large international organisations in this field. This meeting will be one of the largest that has been held by the FSF, in terms of the number of participants.

The participants will discuss potential vulnerabilities in the international and regional financial systems. This will include issues associated with rapid credit growth, foreign currency lending and private sector balance sheet risks. There will also be discussion of the new challenges arising from cross-border financial groups and initiatives to strengthen market infrastructure and financial systems in the region. These areas have long been an important part of the Riksbank’s own financial stability work.

 
Mario Draghi, the Chairman of the FSF and also Governor of the Italian central bank, will chair the meeting. Sweden will be represented by Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves, Minister for Local Government and Financial Markets Mats Odell and the Director General of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen, Ingrid Bonde.

The FSF is a relatively new forum and its purpose is to promote financial stability through enhanced information exchange and international cooperation in financial market supervision and surveillance. It was established in 1999 and consists of representatives of the G7 and five other countries and a number of organisations such as the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the IMF and the OECD. Sweden is not a member.

The meeting in Stockholm is regional and aimed at promoting wider exchanges of views on financial vulnerabilities and the work underway nationally and internationally to address them. For this reason representatives of authorities in a number of European countries will also be taking part in the meeting, in addition to the FSF members.

 
After the meeting Mario Draghi will hold a press conference at the Riksbank. For further information about FSF, please see www.fsforum.org.