NBB Insurance Stress Test 2017

Objectives

Stress testing is an appropriate tool to identify vulnerabilities of the financial system and to assess the potential impact of risks on the stability of the financial system in general and the insurance sector more specifically. Stress testing also helps to identify those undertakings that may pose a risk to the stability of the financial system or the insurance sector. The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) can, after the analysis of the stress test results, issue recommendations to be implemented by the insurance undertakings in order to contribute to the stability of the financial system.

In 2017, the Belgian insurance sector is subject to a stress test consisting of two distinct parts. The first part is a bottom-up stress test focusing on the impact of a persistent low yield environment and is developed by the NBB (Low for Long scenario). The second part is the IMF FSAP stress test designed by the IMF in the context of its 2017 Belgian FSAP mission. It consists of a bottom-up stress test focusing on an increase of the asset risk premia due to adverse macrofinancial evolutions (IMF Adverse scenario), a sensitivity analysis based on single-factor shocks and a top-down stress test.

More details on the stress test scenarios and specifications can be found under the “Stress Test Specifications” section below.

Timeline

Date

Activity

20 June – 23 June 2017

Consultation of stress test package with Assuralia

30 June 2017

Launch of the NBB Insurance Stress Test 2017

6 July 2017

Information session at the NBB

30 June – 25 August 2017

Q&A process

25 August 2017

Early submission of a part of the results of the IMF Adverse scenario

15 September 2017

Submission of the results of the Low for Long and IMF Adverse scenario

Mid-September – October 2017

Validation and analysis of the results

End December 2017

Communication on the Low for Long results

Q1 2018 (tentative date)

Communication on the IMF Adverse scenario results

Stress Test Specifications

Questions & Answers

To ensure the consistency and comparability of the results, a Question & Answer process will run from the launch of the stress test until the submission of the results. All questions should be sent to [email protected] and your file manager. It should be clear to which part of which document they relate. The Q&A process covers both the Low for Long and the IMF FSAP stress test. Questions not directly relating to the stress test but to the Solvency II framework in general will not be treated in this Q&A process.

Questions will be treated on a bilateral basis first. If the nature of the question is of general relevance and of interest to the other participants, both the (anonymised) question and the answer will be published every Friday until August 25th 2017 on the NBB stress test webpage. To the extent that a Q&A affects other reference documents, they will be updated with the same frequency. Undertakings shall regularly verify if new Q&As or new versions of the reference documents have been published and take them into account when performing the stress test.

Publication date

Document

11 August 2017 Stress Test 2017 - Q&A
28 July 2017 Stress Test 2017 - Q&A

14 July 2017

Stress Test 2017 – Q&A

7 July 2017

Stress Test 2017 – Q&A