South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment

The South African financial system has weathered the shock of COVID-19 but faces growing risks emanating from a weak macroeconomic outlook. The pandemic crisis hit South Africa hard, with nonresident capital outflows accelerating and the domestic a...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102601645128957641/South-Africa-Financial-Sector-Assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37079
id okr-10986-37079
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-370792022-03-05T05:10:48Z South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment World Bank COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ECONOMIC RECOVERY INSURANCE The South African financial system has weathered the shock of COVID-19 but faces growing risks emanating from a weak macroeconomic outlook. The pandemic crisis hit South Africa hard, with nonresident capital outflows accelerating and the domestic and global slowdown precipitating a6.4 percent GDP contraction in 2020. A brief period of liquidity stress was managed with new central bank facilities and a lowering of liquidity requirements; and banks proved resilient thanks to sound capital and liquidity buffers. Asset management and pension assets saw falling valuations, but redemption pressures quickly dissipated as markets stabilized. The intensification of the sovereign financial system nexus emerging from the crisis poses risks going forward, and a resurgence of the pandemic could deteriorate asset quality. Banks are resilient in the FSAP’s baseline; however, amedium-term adverse stress scenario would cause a significant decline in capital although most banks would remain sufficiently capitalized. Under stress, banks could face some liquidity gaps, particularly at very short maturities, highlighting the importance of continued close monitoring. The impact of COVID-19 on insurers has thus far been contained, but prudential rules should be strengthened to ensure the measure of capital is sufficiently robust. 2022-03-04T15:25:13Z 2022-03-04T15:25:13Z 2022-01-01 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102601645128957641/South-Africa-Financial-Sector-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37079 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Economic & Sector Work Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) South Africa
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic COVID-19
CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
INSURANCE
spellingShingle COVID-19
CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
INSURANCE
World Bank
South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
geographic_facet Africa
Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE)
South Africa
description The South African financial system has weathered the shock of COVID-19 but faces growing risks emanating from a weak macroeconomic outlook. The pandemic crisis hit South Africa hard, with nonresident capital outflows accelerating and the domestic and global slowdown precipitating a6.4 percent GDP contraction in 2020. A brief period of liquidity stress was managed with new central bank facilities and a lowering of liquidity requirements; and banks proved resilient thanks to sound capital and liquidity buffers. Asset management and pension assets saw falling valuations, but redemption pressures quickly dissipated as markets stabilized. The intensification of the sovereign financial system nexus emerging from the crisis poses risks going forward, and a resurgence of the pandemic could deteriorate asset quality. Banks are resilient in the FSAP’s baseline; however, amedium-term adverse stress scenario would cause a significant decline in capital although most banks would remain sufficiently capitalized. Under stress, banks could face some liquidity gaps, particularly at very short maturities, highlighting the importance of continued close monitoring. The impact of COVID-19 on insurers has thus far been contained, but prudential rules should be strengthened to ensure the measure of capital is sufficiently robust.
format Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
title_short South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
title_full South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
title_fullStr South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
title_full_unstemmed South Africa - Financial Sector Assessment
title_sort south africa - financial sector assessment
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102601645128957641/South-Africa-Financial-Sector-Assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37079
_version_ 1764486548620836864