Section 29(1)(a) of the Banking Act limits credit facilities2 granted by a bank to any one person, or group of persons under the control or influence of any one person, to 25% of its capital funds, while section 29(1)(b) limits substantial loans to 50% of total credit facilities. These sections seek to limit large risk concentrations, and hence the maximum possible loss arising from the failure of a single counterparty or group of related counterparties. However, the existing approach sets limits only on the amount of credit facilities granted by a bank. It does not capture all of a bank’s exposures to a counterparty that could lead to losses to the bank, e.g. from the diminution in value of equity investments, or from the cost of replacing off-balance sheet transactions, in the event that the counterparty fails.
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