Chile Financial Sector Assessment Program Detailed Assessment Of Observance Of The Imf Code Of Good Practices On Transparency In Monetary And Financial Policies

This paper focuses on key findings of the Detailed Assessment of Observance of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Policies on Chile. The assessment reveals a high degree of compliance with the Transparency Code, including in the objectives and responsibilities of the central bank. The target and instrument autonomy of the Central Bank of Chile is strong by virtue of being enshrined in the constitution. The process for monetary policy formulation, implementation, and communication is highly transparent.

An evaluation of observance of good transparency practices relating to banking supervisory and regulatory policy was carried out as part of the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) against the IMF Code of Good Practices on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Policies. It also provides the evaluation of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) relating to securities market supervision, deposit guarantee funds relating to financial policy, and also payment systems oversight conducted as part of the FSAP assessment.

The Central Bank of Chile (CBC) has implemented broadly advanced transparency practices. This reflects the CBC’s strong public commitment to transparency, which is anchored in the law and has been designated by the CBC as a strategic objective to fulfill its mandate. This policy has earned the CBC the broad trust of its stakeholders and has paid significant dividends for the CBC in terms of safeguarding its autonomy and ensuring its policy effectiveness.

Strong fiscal institutions have contributed to Chile’s macroeconomic stability, and recent reform initiatives have focused on enhancing these institutions and fiscal transparency. This report assesses fiscal transparency practices in Chile in relation to the requirements of the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code and confirms that many elements of sound fiscal transparency practices are already in place. Chile’s practices meet the principles of the code at a good or advanced level for 21 out of the 36 principles. This is a good score, compared to the average for Latin American Countries and Emerging Market Economies. On a further nine principles, Chile meets the basic standard of practice. Chile’s fiscal transparency practices are very strong for fiscal forecasting and budgeting, followed by fiscal reporting, while fiscal risk analysis and management demonstrate more mixed results. Further improvements could be achieved relatively easily through the publication of some internal analyses or through a more timely or user-friendly publication of already available information.

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes data module provides an assessment of Chile’s macroeconomic statistics against the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), complemented by an assessment of data quality based on the IMF’s Data Quality Assessment Framework. The assessment reveals that Chile’s macroeconomic statistics are timely, generally of high quality, and adequate to conduct effective surveillance. There is a high degree of quality awareness among Chile’s statistical managers and a reputation of integrity of the statistical institutions and processes among data users. However, there is scope for improvement in some areas.

This paper highlights key findings of the Financial System Stability Assessment, including Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes on Monetary and Financial Policy Transparency, Banking Supervision, and Securities Regulation for Chile. The assessment reveals the Chilean banking system to be sound, resilient to shocks, and well supervised. Banks are well capitalized, profitable, internationally integrated, and have relatively low nonperforming loans. Stress tests indicate that they would absorb sizable macroeconomic shocks with only a moderate impact on their solvency. Although bank competition remains limited, it has increased significantly in recent years.

The financial system in Chile functions well overall within a sound regulatory framework. It features large and deep financial markets in a sector dominated by conglomerates, six systemic banks, and pension funds. The twin shocks of social unrest in late 2019 and COVID-19 were adeptly managed thanks to massive and well-coordinated supervisory and fiscal policy responses, as well as unprecedented liquidity support from the Central Bank of Chile (BCCh). Banks have remained profitable through the crisis, partially supported by central bank financing and government-guaranteed SME lending. The funded pension system that has been instrumental in market deepening is under threat due in part to a series of withdrawals. Congress has also authorized life annuity liquidations. A major reorganization of the financial regulatory authorities has been finalized, and Basel III will be implemented starting in December 2021.