Recovery Planning how ready are you?

Transcription

1 Recovery Planning how ready are you? Design your Recovery Plan under the proposed HKMA SPM RE-1 June 2014

2 Background The recent global financial crisis exposed weaknesses in the system, where failure of systematically important financial institutions ( SIFI ) could have a serious impact on the stability of worldwide economies. Some governments have had to use public funding to rescue these too big to fail financial institutions. To avoid similar scenarios in the future, the G20 countries have tasked the Financial Stability Board ( FSB ) to establish guidelines on recovery and resolution planning ( living will ) that will help authorities and financial institutions effectively respond to future challenges. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority ( HKMA ) recently issued a Supervisory Policy Manual RE-1 (SPM RE-1 ) on Recovery Planning. This step by the HKMA follows international regulators in providing guidance in establishing the bank s recovery plans. The SPM RE-1 is largely aligned with the key attributes set out by the FSB in November 2011 ( Key Attributes ) as well as the subsequent guidance issued in July 2013 ( Additional Guidance ). This publication is the first of a series on the topic of recovery and resolution planning. 2 PwC

3 Scope and coverage The HKMA expects all banks to develop and maintain a recovery plan that is commensurate with its business nature, size and complexity. Ownership of the initial development and subsequent updates to the plan rests with the banks and should be an integral part of the bank s risk management framework, not a standalone compliance exercise. The guidance applies to local and overseas incorporated Authorised Institutions ( AI ). The HKMA expects most local AIs to have a local recovery plan even if a plan exists at the overseas group level. Implementation of recovery planning will take on a phased approach where the HKMA will request submission of recovery plans from the first wave of most systematically significant and critical AIs within six months from the issuance of this SPM, with submission of plans by other AIs to follow. Key elements of recovery planning SPM RE-1 covers the following key elements in recovery planning: Governance structure and oversight Identification of core businesses, material entities, critical functions and critical shared services Stress scenarios Recovery triggers Menu of recovery options Disposal options Eligibility for central banking facilities Communication plan On the next page we will look at each of these key elements in more detail. PwC 3

4 Key elements of a recovery plan Highlights and Considerations SPM RE-1 provides guidance on the key elements required in a recovery plan, which is consistent with the considerations laid out in FSB s Key Attributes. In addition, the SPM gives colour to HKMA s thinking on certain specific considerations (e.g. view that no recovery option should take any longer than 6 months to take effect) and linkages of parts of the recovery plan to existing SPMs (e.g. LM-2 for liquidity risk management, IC-5 for stress testing, etc.). We outline below the summary points and considerations on each element based on our experience working on recovery plans for some of our global SIFI ( G-SIFI ) clients. Banks are expected to develop a comprehensive communication plan to accompany the deployment of each of the recovery options. The communication strategy should include, at a minimum, the identification of key stakeholders, the approach to communication, and personnel assignment for communication. Deployment of recovery plan could potentially pose a threat to a bank s reputation. Therefore, when designing the communication plan, banks should carefully consider and address the impact of the communication and recovery action on its reputation, and subsequent knock-on effects, if any. Communication plan Governance structure an oversight Banks should not assume any public support for the purpose of their recovery planning. However, the HKMA may act as a Lender of Last Resort ( LOLR ) to provide liquidity support to banks experiencing funding difficulties on a short-term basis. Banks, therefore, should give consideration to the circumstances in which they may require access to the LOLR support. Banks should include information to facilitate an initial assessment of its eligibility for LOLR support from the HKMA in the recovery plan. However, banks should not rely on this option as the primary action for recovery purposes. The HKMA expects that disposal of a part, and/or the whole of a bank or its business or assets to be included as one of the recovery options. Banks are expected to plan ahead to ensure such options feasibility. Banks should also consider the likely situation where disposal options will take place under unfavourable conditions or fire sale. As such, the assumptions for such disposal options should therefore be made in an extremely conservative manner. Disposal options are likely one of the more challenging options to implement as they often involve multiple action points, such as sales options, internal reviews and approvals, market valuation, readiness of due diligence information, negotiation with buyers, etc. Therefore, the recovery plan should include sufficient details of the actions required to facilitate execution in case if disposal is required. The expected execution time required should be within the 6-month guideline. Eligibility for central bank facilities Disposal options RECOVERY PLAN Menu of recovery options 4 PwC

5 d Recovery plans need to include clear governance over development, maintenance, and execution of the plan with adequate senior management and/ or board involvement and support. Specifically, it should include actionable operation procedures with assigned responsibilities and transparent decision making process to monitor and execute the plan when required. The recovery plan should be fully embedded into, and form an integral part of, the banks existing overall risk management framework. Identification of core businesses, material entities, critical functions, and critical shared services Stress scenarios The identification of core business lines, material entities, critical functions, and critical shared services is a key step in recovery planning as it forms the basis and priority on which recovery options can be designed. Banks are also required to clearly identify and document the inter-relationship among these components. Banks should establish a set of assessment criteria for identification of core business lines and material entities. The criteria should include both qualitative and quantitative elements. Management judgement will be needed in both establishing and applying the criteria. For identification of critical functions, the FSB Additional Guidance provides a framework which considers impact assessment, supply side analysis, and firm specific test for critical functions. Once again, assessment of these considerations will likely require significant management judgement and possibly discussions with relevant authorities. Stress scenarios are required to be built in order to test the effectiveness, impact, and feasibility of the recovery plan. Banks may consider leveraging their existing stress testing programme as appropriate. However, the scenarios suitable for recovery planning purposes should generally be of a particularly severe nature, and likely more so than those in existing programmes. Banks should include three types of stress scenarios as a minimum: an idiosyncratic scenario, a market-wide scenario, and a combination of the two. Reverse stress testing scenarios linked to specific incidents that are related to the bank s recovery triggers can be used as one of the tools for developing scenarios for recovery planning. Recovery triggers Banks are expected to develop and maintain a trigger framework to identify risks before severe crisis occurs and help the bank restore financial stability. The mechanism should be fully embedded within the bank s existing risk management framework. The trigger framework should comprise a mix of qualitative and quantitative indicators that are most relevant to the bank. Banks can make reference to FSB and other guidelines for trigger setting. However, significant management judgement is required to ensure the set of triggers suits the bank s own business and operations. Also, it is important to ensure the set of triggers used covers the range of potential threats to the bank s viability. Banks should identify and develop a full set of materials and feasible recovery options that could play a substantive role in preserving or restoring liquidity and capital levels, and ultimately, going concern viability. Recovery options should not take longer than six months to take effect. Options that require longer than six months can be outlined as work-in-progress with a plan to refine the execution time period. The focus of menu of recovery options is not any short-term quick-fix. Rather, when designing the menu, banks should take a longer term perspective on the business viability and not focus purely on dealing with immediate stress situations. PwC 5

6 Supervisory assessment The HKMA will review, on a regular basis, the effectiveness and credibility of a bank s recovery plan during its off-site reviews and/or on-site examinations. Banks are also expected to submit their recovery plans to the HKMA on a regular basis, and whenever the HKMA deems its necessary. Any shortfalls and/or gaps identified by the regulator should be addressed by the banks in a timely manner. Resolution planning Closely related to recovery planning is resolution planning (i.e. planning to orderly dissolve an AI deemed non-viable without significant disruption to overall financial stability). To this end, the Treasury Bureau of the Hong Kong Government ( FSTB ), the HKMA, and the Securities and Futures Commission ( SFC ), have issued a consultation paper on proposals for a resolution regime in Hong Kong with the aim to effect any required changes to establish a resolution regime in accordance with the principles outlined in the FSB Key Attributes guidance. The HKMA is also expected to provide further guidance on resolution planning and assessment in a separate SPM in There is certain work that banks can start preparing for resolution planning purposes. We will publish our point of views in a separate publication. 6 PwC

7 PwC s experience PwC has provided assistance to 20 out of 29 (as of November 2013) global systemically important banks ( G-SIBs ) around the world to design, implement and/or update their recovery and resolution plans; 4 of which are G-SIBs that are headquartered within Asia. We provide end-to-end support in the design of your recovery and resolution plan as well as improvements to the related risk management framework. Contacts James Quinnild Financial Services Consulting Leader Asia james.m.quinnild@hk.pwc.com James Chang Banking and Capital Markets Consulting Leader China +86 (10) james.chang@cn.pwc.com Peter Li Banking and Capital Markets Leader Hong Kong peter.pt.li@hk.pwc.com Rick Heathcote Regulatory Advisory Services Leader rick.heathcote@hk.pwc.com Albert Lo Partner albert.kh.lo@hk.pwc.com Thomas Ma Associate Director thomas.ch.ma@hk.pwc.com PwC 7

8 This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law, PricewaterhouseCoopers does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it PwC Hong Kong. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the China or Hong Kong member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see for further details. HK