Preface
As indicated in its Organic Charter, the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) “aims to promote, to the extent of its powers and within the framework of the policies established by the National Government, monetary stability, financial stability, employment and economic development with social equity”. Generally speaking, financial stability exists when the financial system can provide fund intermediation, hedging, and payment services adequately, efficiently, and continuously, even in stressful situations.
For the financial system to contribute to economic development with social equity, it is an essential condition that there be financial stability, as well as that the system be deep and inclusive. The BCRA guides its policies in pursuit of these objectives. For families to entrust their funds to the financial system, it is required that it protects the value of their savings with a positive real return, while the intermediation process remains solid and adequate management of macroeconomic risks prevails. A deep financial system allows producers and employers to obtain credit to start, produce, and hire, and families to buy their home, a car, or finance other projects. Thus, the financial system functions as a mechanism to promote the well-being of economic agents and to promote equity, providing opportunities to those who have good projects but lack the wealth to undertake them.
In order to promote the deepening of the financial system and safeguard its stability, the BCRA exercises its powers of regulation, supervision and provision of liquidity of last resort. It also monitors the main developments in the financial system and the payment system, assessing possible risks, vulnerability factors and the degree of resilience of the sector to possible adverse scenarios.
In this context, the Financial Stability Report (FSR) is a biannual publication in which the BCRA communicates its view of the state of the financial system, the initiatives aimed at its development and the evaluation of its stability. In the IEF, the BCRA pays special attention to the identification and analysis of possible systemic risks and to explaining what actions it implements to prevent or mitigate them. This publication helps the different actors to make their decisions with more and better information, facilitating proper management of their activity. In this way, the IEF is an instrument to stimulate debate on aspects related to financial stability and, in particular, on the BCRA’s procedure in this area.
The next edition of the IEF will be published in November 2016. Starting in 2017, the IEF will be published in April and October each year.
