Proceedings of the Eighth IFC Conference, Basel, 8-9 September 2016.
Opening the eighth IFC conference on the “Statistical implications of the new financial landscape,”4 Katherine Hennings, IFC Vice Chair and representative from the Central Bank of Brazil, underlined central bank statisticians’ ongoing efforts to improve international financial statistics in response to the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–09. Such efforts aimed, in particular, at developing better quality, more comprehensive and more flexible data sets.
In his remarks, Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva, Deputy General Manager of the BIS, recalled the numerous actions undertaken in the area of financial statistics since the GFC, including, in particular, the Data Gaps Initiative endorsed by the G20 (see IMF and FSB (2009), and Heath and Goksu (2016)). The BIS and the various financial stability groups hosted at the BIS have concentrated their efforts on four major areas: the production of new financial statistics; the effective dissemination of these data; their adequate use, especially for policy purposes; and the anchoring of Basel based statistical work in international initiatives. Looking ahead, one needs to be prepared for the constant emergence of new data-related issues. To this end, statisticians should further their efforts to: produce better macro statistics; collect macro-relevant, “pure” micro data; facilitate the linking of macro- and micro financial data; better assess the distribution of aggregated indicators; ensure that the design and assessment of new financial policies are based on statistical evidence; and expand “the knowledge frontier” by developing new concepts for analysing financial stability issues (Tissot (2016a)).
In his keynote speech, Pedro Silva, President of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), emphasised the disconnection between the large data gaps revealed by the GFC and the increasing volume of statistics emanating from the digital revolution (IFC (2015b)). But having more data at one’s disposal was not necessarily associated with better quality information. It was also posing new and sometimes unexpected challenges. The way forward for statisticians was to keep their existing and well known data frameworks, and to complete them with available information rather than switching to the compilation of entirely new large data sets. In any case, applying statistical thinking for process analysis and having sound methodology were essential in ensuring data quality and evidence-based decision-making, especially in a world of big data.
The conference was fruitful in combining various country experiences, both from methodological and empirical perspectives, and allowing for an in-depth exploration of several specific themes. Session 1 focused on the post-GFC data frameworks that were developed to capture financial stability risks. Session 2 looked at the statistical implications of changing financial intermediation patterns. Session 3 reviewed the new data required by evolving monetary policy needs. Session 4 dealt with the assessment of vulnerabilities. Session 5 focused on micro data. Finally, Session 6 reviewed issues related to the sharing and dissemination of statistics. The Conference ended with a panel discussion on the statistical implications of the new financial landscape.