Page 251 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 3

STS 543 Luís T. D. et al.
Figure 2 – The new CCR data attributes

3. Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policy — What’s in it for the
New CCR?
As discussed in the previous section, the Bank has been leveraging the
Portuguese CCR to meet its tasks in several domains. One of the most relevant
task entrusted to the Bank in its Organic Law is ensuring “the stability of the
national financial system, performing for this purpose, in particular, the
functions of lender of last resort and national macro-prudential authority” and
participating “in the European system for the prevention and mitigation of
risks to financial stability and in other bodies pursuing the same goal”. To meet
this challenge, the Bank resorts to a number of different inputs and techniques
that allow for a systemic view of the financial system and of the build-up of
systemic risks.
In this context, data from the CCR are an instrumental and extensively used
input, analysing the various dimensions and characteristics attached to the
loans, debtors and/or creditors. Indeed, in light of its intrinsic homogeneity
and of the possibility to compare its data with other databases, the CCR data
allows for a complementary analysis to the “traditional” aggregate data by
providing the underlying distribution measures and by enabling the
enhancement of the testing and monitoring (e.g., stress testing) of the banks’
results in ever-changing and increasingly complex scenarios.
Indeed, Lima & Drumond (2015) discussed the insufficiencies attached to
aggregate data when assessing financial stability and showed how microdata
databases, such as the CCR, enable an evaluation of the causes of the
movements behind the aggregates and thus uncover the potential build¬up
of imbalances. Moreover, they also recognize that some macroprudential tools
require specifically the use of characteristics that are only available in granular
datasets – such as the collateral amount of real estate and debt instalments.

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