Macroprudential policy tools

The macroprudential tools available to Eesti Pank can be divided into three groups:

1) Moral suasion measures, with which Eesti Pank can draw the attention of market participants to vulnerabilities in the financial system and so influence their decisions indirectly. This can include advice to market participants, but also covers the analysis and risk assessments in the Financial Stability Review, public presentations and press releases. Eesti Pank can also give its opinions and recommendations on measures that fall within the remit of other institutions.

2) Instruments set out in the European Union’s Capital Requirements Regulation and Directive, where the principles for implementation and coordination have been harmonised in the European Union. These include capital buffer requirements such as systemic risk buffers, countercyclical capital buffers, and systemically important institution buffers, and also the measures under Article 458 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

3) Requirements for issuing loans, which derive their legal basis from the Credit Institutions Act. Eesti Pank has the right to set limits on the loan-to-value ratio, the loan-to-income ratio, the debt service-to-income ratio and the maximum maturity of loans, and on the loan-to-deposit ratio of credit institutions.

Eesti Pank generally assesses the need to introduce or change macroprudential measures twice a year and publishes the results in the Financial Stability Review.