Informe de Estabilidad Financiera

This semi-annual report presents recent developments and prospects for financial stability in Argentina.

Preface

Financial stability implies a situation where the financial services sector can intermediate the savings
of economic agents and provide a national payment service in an efficient, secure and sustainable way over
time. Within the framework of the implementation of consistent and stable macroeconomic policies, the degree of resilience of the
sector to negative shocks defines the proximity of the system to the conditions of financial stability.
The strong interrelationship between financial stability and sustained economic growth justifies that the former constitutes a social good that the State must seek and protect. Historically, many Central Banks were founded to
deal with situations of financial instability, while currently, most have as one of their main functions to promote financial stability.
The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic, as established in its Organic Charter in Article 4, has the mandate
to “monitor the proper functioning of the financial market”. To achieve the success of this essential function, it is necessary to complement the BCRA’s usual regulatory and supervisory powers with a transparent communication strategy that is accessible to the general public.
In this framework, the Financial Stability Bulletin (BEF) emerges, presenting a general assessment of the
evolution of financial stability conditions. In the BEF, the various channels of information of the
BCRA on the subject are merged into a single publication. In addition, between each semi-annual edition of the BEF, the BCRA publishes
the Banking Report on a monthly basis to keep the public updated on the latest developments in the
financial system. These two publications are the main means used by the BCRA to disseminate its perspective
on the financial sector.
Depending on the depth desired by the reader, BEF can be approached in two ways. The reading of the Institutional Vision
and the Risk Balance, together with the synthesis and highlights of each chapter, allows us to capture the essence of the content of the BEF. Naturally, the complete review of the BEF offers an in-depth evaluation of the
topics discussed, enriched by the development of special topics presented in the Sections.
The date of the next publication of the BEF, with a statistical closure of December 2008, will be March 31, 2009 via
the Internet.