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Business and Economics > Insurance

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Cover Technical Notes and Manuals
BigTech in Financial Services: Emerging Regulatory Considerations
Parma Bains
,
Gabriela E Conde
,
Nobuyasu Sugimoto
, and
Caroline Wu
Large technology firms (BigTech) are increasingly expanding into consumer-facing financial services, particularly payments, credit, insurance, asset management, and financial SuperApps. While their current financial stability implications remain limited in most jurisdictions, rapid growth, especially in emerging market and developing economies, raises new conduct, prudential, and systemic risks. This paper analyzes BigTech business models, key activities, and associated risks, and assesses the adequacy of existing regulatory frameworks. It discusses practical options for supervisors to enhance risk identification, strengthen sector-based and group-wide supervision, expand the regulatory perimeter, improve data protection frameworks, and reinforce domestic and international coordination. No global financial standards apply specifically to BigTech. Given the cross-border nature of BigTech activities, global standards should be developed to facilitate internationally consistent regulation and effective cross-border cooperation.
Keywords:
BigTech; BNPL; conglomerate; emerging market and developing economies; financial stability; fintech; systemic risk; insurance; credit; payments; asset management; regulation; supervision; IMF Technical Notes; emerging market; Monetary and Capital Markets Department; risk identification; BigTech firm; Financial sector stability; Global; South America; Central America; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Austria: Detailed Assessment Report on Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
This paper presents a detailed assessment report on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) for Austria. This report analyses the level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force 40 recommendations and the effectiveness of Austria’s AML/CFT system and provides recommendations on how the system could be improved. The authorities also took measures to increase the effectiveness of the AML/CFT framework. Most notable are the improvements related to transparency of beneficial ownership, financial sector supervision, and terrorist financing investigations. A whole-of-government perspective is pending. The national AML/CFT strategy and action plan emphasize broad overarching objectives to strengthen the AML/CFT framework. Missing are risk-based measures aimed at effective implementation, and an agreed common implementation policy with targets, objectives, and feedback loops. The transformation of the Austrian Financial Intelligence Unit into an intelligence-focused body has improved analytical capacity. Transparency of legal entities is further positively supported by other appropriate risk mitigating measures, such as the registration of all nominee arrangements, and a focus on high-risk sectors based on good typologies.
Keywords:
risk assessment; financial market; Wirtschaftskammer Österreich; Beneficial Ownership registration; MLA request; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Money laundering; International cooperation; Financial sector; Europe; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Slovenia: Financial Challenges in the Health Sector
Kue-Peng Chuah
Healthcare and long-term care expenditures are projected to rise significantly in Slovenia over the medium and long term, primarily due to rapid population aging. This paper examines the financial challenges confronting the health sector—the increasing demand for healthcare and long-term care, alongside a financing system that has not yet adapted to this evolving context—and outlines reforms to enhance the sector’s long-term sustainability.
Keywords:
Active aging; Aging population; Europe; Fiscal cost of aging; Healthcare; Healthcare expenditure; Healthcare financing; Healthcare reforms; Implications of aging; Long-term care; Long-term Sustainability; Slovenia; Sick leave benefits; IMF staff; issues paper; IMF country; Health insurance institute; Health care; Aging; Health care spending
Cover IMF Working Papers
Welfare Analysis of Income-Stabilization Policies in a HANK Model with Unemployment Risk
Stefano Grancini
,
Marcos Poplawski Ribeiro
, and
Danila Smirnov
Understanding how policies can stabilize household welfare during recessions requires a framework that captures household heterogeneity, unemployment risk, and general-equilibrium labor market dynamics. We study a contractionary demand shock in a Heterogeneous-Agent New-Keynesian model with search-and-matching friction on the labor market (HANK–SAM) and compare the effectiveness of alternative income-stabilization policies. Using a common fiscal envelope, we contrast increases in unemployment insurance generosity, with targeted transfers to hand-to-mouth households, and universal transfers. Policy effectiveness is assessed through the aggregate consumers’ welfare, measured in consumption-equivalent variation units. In an economy calibrated to U.S. data, unemployment insurance yields the largest welfare gain per percentage point of fiscal cost, followed by targeted transfers, while universal transfers are the least effective. A temporary increase in unemployment insurance generates the highest welfare, as it combines immediate cash-flow support with insurance effects, disproportionally benefiting households with high marginal propensities to consume.
Keywords:
Income stabilization; Heterogeneous-agent New Keynesian (HANK); Search-and-matching; Unemployment insurance; Targeted transfers; Consumption-equivalent variation; Public debt envelope; Policy effectiveness; IMF working papers; stabilization policy; household heterogeneity; contractionary demand shock; Unemployment; Unemployment benefits; Insurance; Consumption; Labor markets; Global
Cover Departmental Papers
The “Safe” in the Financial Safety Net: Building Robust Deposit Insurance Systems
Atilla Arda
,
Marc C Dobler
,
Peter Mugisa
,
Jan Nolte
, and
David C. Parker
The paper updates IMF staff views on deposit insurance policy issues, which were last comprehensively addressed in 2006 before the global financial crisis and prior to the international standard. Effective deposit insurance systems must be integrated into the financial safety net, have strong governance arrangements, and adequate funding with a public backstop. Coverage should protect most retail deposits and membership must be mandatory for all banks. Funding targets should be informed by expert judgment, and foreign currency deposits should be insured if widely used. The paper recommends that deposit insurance funds should be available to support the resolution of banks (subject to safeguards), enabling prompt depositor compensation and the continuity of depositor services. It also recommends close coordination with resolution authorities and adopting depositor preference. Key challenges include the need for shorter depositor payout timeframes, the evolution of fintech products, and ensuring credible funding arrangements.
Keywords:
Financial Crises; Financial Institutions and Services; Government Policy and Regulation; Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages; IMF staff; depositor preference; Monetary and Capital Markets Department; IMF publication; Financial Crisis Preparedness and Management Division; Deposit insurance; Insurance; Financial safety nets; Bank deposits; Financial sector stability; Global; Asia and Pacific
Cover Technical Assistance Reports
Rwanda: Technical Assistance Report-Monetary and Financial Statistics Mission (July 29–August 9, 2024)
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
The mission assisted the staff of the National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) in broadening the coverage of MFS, to include other financial corporations (OFCs) and compile the OFCs Survey, aligned with the IMF’s 2016 Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual and Compilation Guide (2016 MFSMCG). In addition the mission discussed (i) the development of a Balance Sheet Approach (BSA) matrix with full coverage of the financial sector and with additional data from the external, fiscal and real sectors; (ii) data consistency between central bank, other depository corporations (ODCs) and OFCs; (iii) integrated MFS (stocks, transactions, and other flows); and provided hands-on training on MFS compilation issues to the officials of the NBR’s Statistics Department.
Keywords:
Rwanda; Monetary and Financial Statistics; 2016 MFSMCG; Other depository corporations; Other financial corporations; balance sheet approach.; statistics department; technical assistance provider; CD recipient; Development bank; staff of the International Monetary Fund; Monetary statistics; Insurance; Business enterprises; Financial statements
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note on Systemic Risk Analysis and Stress Testing
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This Technical note presents the findings and recommendations of the systemic risk analysis conducted for the Swiss financial system as part of the Switzerland 2025 financial sector assessment program. The analysis intends to help identify the sources of vulnerabilities and systemic risk facing the Swiss financial sector, to inform policy advice and strengthen the resilience of the system to absorb external adverse shocks and to detect and counter endogenously building vulnerabilities of the financial system. The analysis involves various stress test exercises to assess the resilience of the financial system. A holistic vulnerability analysis combines all findings from current conditions and all forward-looking model-based analyses. The stress tests placed emphasis on structural models, given Switzerland’s specific historical macro-financial dynamics. The pension fund sector appears robust, but some uncertainties remain due to data limitations. Despite a difficult market environment and increasing life expectancy, pensions funds have fared well over the last years. Pension fund bankruptcies are rare and have mostly involved small institutions. As a result, gross insolvency payments by the guarantee fund, which have to be financed by the pension sector as a whole, have been low and stable.
Keywords:
solvency stress test; solvency risk; banking system profitability; coverage ratio; financial system structure; Stress testing; Solvency; Pensions; Insurance; Pension spending; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Inequality, Household Debt, and the Role of Social Protection in Thailand
Piyaporn Chote
,
Corinne C Delechat
,
Seunghwan Kim
,
Ying Xu
, and
Tamon Yungvichit
This study examines the nexus between inequality, household debt, and social protection in Thailand, focusing on their interrelation during the COVID-19 shock. Using data from the Thailand Household Socio-Economic Surveys of 2019, 2021, and 2023, we apply the Recentered Influence Function regression and decomposition method to identify the drivers of inequality in Thailand and demonstrate how the pandemic, despite its severe economic impact, led to a decline in income inequality through these drivers. Our analysis highlights the role of social protection, showing that social assistance helped reduce income inequality, while social insurance exerted the opposite effect in Thailand. Additionally, we investigate how income inequality and disparities in acess to social protection affected household debt dynamics during the pandemic. Our findings show that lower-income households were more likely to be indebted following the pandemic, possbly reflecting increased income shortfalls. Social assistance alleviated the pandemic’s effects on household debt by easing income constraints, whereas social insurance exacerbated them.
Keywords:
COVID-19; inequality; household debt; social protection; Imf working papers; pandemic's effect; inequality in Thailand; pandemic shock; Income inequality; Income; Tax allowances
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note on Insurance Regulation and Supervision
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This Technical Note provides an update on the Swiss insurance sector and an analysis of several aspects of the regulatory and supervisory system. The note covers private insurers supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The Swiss regulatory framework for insurers is generally robust, although extensive reliance on external auditors and hurdles to enforcement limit the effectiveness of the supervision. The Swiss solvency supervisory framework has been continuously improved over the last ten years. Recent reforms strengthen the Swiss Solvency Test, supported by the qualitative supervision, such as risk management and internal controls requirements. FINMA should develop resolution plans and apply resolution planning to identified insurance groups. FINMA can decide to withdraw the suspensive effect on its decision, at which point the concerned party must justify on what grounds the immediate execution of FINMA’s decision would be prejudicial. FINMA should further be empowered to impose fines and administrative penalties.
Keywords:
IMF staff; FINMA insurer; solvency assessment; staff team; insurance penetration; Insurance; Insurance companies; Insurance supervision; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Solvency; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note on Financial Safety Net and Crisis Management Arrangements
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This Technical Note examines the Swiss financial safety net and crisis management framework, including bank resolution mechanisms. The focus is on the authorities’ capacity to address failing and potentially failing banks swiftly and effectively, as well as their preparedness for financial distress. The assessment draws on an analysis of existing legislation, policies, responses to a pre-mission questionnaire, and discussions with authorities and the private sector. An evaluation of Switzerland's financial stability framework against key international standards, including those from the Financial Stability Board and International Association of Deposit Insurers, reveals critical gaps requiring immediate action. Imperatives include substantially increasing the scope of resolution planning and resolvability assessments, and further enhancing resolution tools. A major impediment to effective crisis management is the severely understaffed recovery and resolution unit within the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Furthermore, the financial safety net lacks credibility due to a noncompliant Deposit Insurance Scheme and the absence of a dedicated resolution fund to cover capital needs not met by bail-in. Adopting a Public Liquidity Backstop is critical to reinforcing the overall safety net and ensuring the credibility of both Emergency Liquidity Assistance and the resolution frameworks, reducing reliance on direct government support during crises.
Keywords:
IMF staff; credit Suisse; infrastructure ordinance; staff team; liquidity support; Financial sector stability; Lender of last resort; Crisis management; Collateral; Global