Recommendation for the Enactment of the Buffer for Systemically Important Institutions (FMSG/2/2015)

The FMSB recommends that the FMA should enact a capital buffer in Austria of between 1% and 2% of risk-weighted assets on the basis of the European Banking Authority's (EBA) Guidelines on systemically important institutions. Various criteria - size, interconnectedness with the financial system, substitutability, complexity and cross-border activities - are taken into consideration in classifying the institutions. Banks are to be classified as systemically important institutions if the malfunctioning or failure of the institution can reasonably be expected to lead to the emergence of systemic risk. The additional capital requirements should serve to increase the resilience of the identified institutions, while also providing a stimulus for reducing their systemic relevance.

The higher of the respective systemic risk buffer and systemically important institution buffer shall be applied. In the currently prevailing case, this is the systemic risk buffer.