Bank Recovery and Resolution

Bank Recovery and Resolution: overview

In the wake of the global financial crisis, work has been ongoing internationally to address the issue of banks being ‘too big to fail’ – i.e. to ensure that the cost burden of any future bank failure is for the account of its shareholders and creditors, and not for the taxpayers, who ultimately ‘bailed-out’ troubled banks during the crisis.

In 2011, the Financial Stability Board, which had been created by the G20 Governments in response to the financial crisis, published a set of “Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions”. These have since informed the development of Bank Recovery and Resolution regulations which have been introduced in many jurisdictions around the world.

Approach to Bank Recovery and Resolution in the Isle of Man

The Bank (Recovery and Resolution) Act 2020  (the ‘Act’) came fully into force on 4 January 2021. Under the Act, the Financial Services Authority is given a new mandate as the Resolution Authority for the Island, in addition to its existing responsibilities for regulation and supervision. The Act broadly reflects similar legislation that has been adopted in the UK and Europe and gives the Authority a wide range of new powers to deal with a ‘failing or likely to fail’ bank.

Recovery Planning

One learning from the global financial crisis was the need for banks themselves to develop detailed plans as to how they would seek to recover from a stress event, or events, serious enough to threaten the viability of the bank. By considering these events in advance and documenting actions which bank management might take in response, the resilience of a bank to a potential ‘shock’ event may be improved.

Under the Act, the Authority requires banks incorporated in the Isle of Man to prepare recovery plans and to keep them up to date. These recovery plans are also to be submitted to the Authority for review, normally on an annual basis. Guidance to assist banks in the preparation of their recovery plans is available here. 

Where considered relevant, the Authority will also obtain and review the recovery plans for banks which are incorporated in other jurisdictions and which have branch operations in the Isle of Man.

Related Documents

Regulations which set out how the Authority will ensure the separation of its functions as a resolution authority from its functions as a regulatory supervisor, can be accessed here