Central bank council approves three draft prudential regulations for banks
The Bank of Algeria's monetary and banking council has approved three draft regulations that revise the prudential rules governing banks and financial institutions, in a move meant to bring national supervision closer to international standards.
The council examined the texts at an ordinary session held on Thursday, 5 November. The first draft covers solvency ratios, the minimum amount of capital that lenders must hold against the risks they take. The second deals with large exposures and equity holdings, and sets limits on the concentration of lending to a single borrower or group. The third updates the rules for classifying loans and off-balance-sheet commitments, such as guarantees, and for setting aside provisions against those at risk of default.
The package also includes provisions for Islamic finance. In addition, the council strengthened the deposit guarantee system and set the rate of the premium that banks pay into it. The announcement does not give the figure. The guarantee system protects depositors if a bank fails, so the premium rate determines how much lenders contribute to that safety net.
The texts are still drafts, and they will take effect only once adopted in their final form and published in the Official Journal, as was the case with the central bank's regulation on gold transactions published on 4 November. That rule allows banks to trade in gold, hold it and lend against it, within a net position limited to 10 percent of their own funds.
Taken together, the measures show the central bank tightening its framework in line with international standards. Stricter provisioning and exposure rules are meant to keep the banking system on a sound footing while the government seeks to diversify the economy beyond hydrocarbons
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