Press release – 47th meeting of the Financial Market Stability Board

Austria’s Financial Market Stability Board (FMSB) held its 47th meeting on December 12, 2025, to discuss recommendations on the countercyclical capital buffer and the sectoral systemic risk buffer for commercial real estate financing as well as its work program for 2026.

Countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB)

The FMSB advises the Financial Market Authority (FMA) to maintain the CCyB at its current rate of 0% of domestic risk-weighted assets. At present, only two of the sixteen indicators point to increased risks from the financial cycle. Moreover, the two credit-to-GDP gap indicators that carry higher weights in the assessment of such risks remain below the critical thresholds.

For details, see Recommendation FMSB/5/2025. An interactive dashboard showing systemic cyclical risk indicators is available on the OeNB website.

Sectoral systemic risk buffer for commercial real estate financing

The FMSB advises the FMA to set the sectoral systemic risk buffer for commercial real estate financing at 3.5%. At the moment, the buffer rate is 1.0%. The FMSB recommends that the FMA gradually raise this rate, first to 2% as of July 1, 2026, and to 3.5% one year later.

The FMSB had decided in its 42nd meeting on October 3, 2024, to initially limit the buffer rate to 1% given uncertainties arising from the most recent amendment of the EU Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR III). One year later, the FMSB found that the capital requirements for commercial real estate financing had hardly changed overall after the CRR III had started to take effect. Furthermore, OeNB analyses show that systemic risks have increased further, which is due to the deterioration in the economic outlook.

The FMSB considers a buffer rate of 3.5% to be adequate to strengthen the banking sector’s resilience against the identified systemic risks from commercial real estate financing. The FMSB’s assessment also takes into account banks’ existing loan loss provisions and capital requirements. Financing granted to nonprofit or limited profit developers will continue to be exempt. An impact assessment carried out by the OeNB suggests that the effects of the buffer on credit costs, lending activity and the real economy will be small.

For details, see Recommendation FMSB/6/2025.

2026 work program

Systemic risks from residential and commercial real estate financing will continue to be on top of the FMSB’s agenda in 2026. In addition, systemic risks associated with nonbank financial intermediaries will be a major topic. Also, the FMSB will carry out quarterly evaluations of the countercyclical capital buffer and evaluations of the other systemically important institutions (O-SII) buffer and the systemic risk buffer.