MEFMI Raises Awareness on Macroprudential Stress Testing

As part of efforts to raise awareness on the different approaches and challenges to macroprudential stress testing applied in the region, MEFMI hosted a webinar titled Macroprudential Stress Testing during Crises: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic on 29 June 2022. The webinar was delivered in English and Portuguese.

The webinar was conducted on the back of increased usage of stress testing as a supervisory tool to assess the resilience of the financial system given a set of predefined risks. Stress testing exercises involve the processing of available data using forward-looking models and may be conducted at institution (micro) or system-wide (macro) levels. At the macro level, stress tests may be conducted for the whole or a part of the financial sector to monitor system-wide risks for financial stability purposes. Since the Global Financial Crisis, macro stress tests have become an integral part of supervisory authorities’ tool kit. In that regard, sophisticated stress tests have been used to identify vulnerabilities in the financial system, correlations between different types of risks and potential risk exposures.

A total of 76 officials attended the webinar.  The officials were drawn from 12 MEFMI member countries, namely Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In terms of gender representation, 37 percent of the participants were female while the rest were male.

Three speakers, namely Dr Patrizia Baudino (Senior Advisor, Financial Stability Institute), Ms. Florette Nakusera (Director Financial Stability and Macroprudential Oversight, Bank of Namibia) and Mr Fredrick Shirima (MEFMI Graduate Fellow and Assistant Manager, Bank of Tanzania) presented at the webinar.

MEFMI will continue to support member countries’ efforts to strengthen their macroprudential frameworks to preserve financial stability in their respective jurisdictions.

By Noel Mahombera