Governor Ismaili Hosts IMF Technical Assistance Mission on Strengthening Stress Testing and Systemic Risk Analysis

The Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK), Mr. Ahmet Ismaili, accompanied by senior management, hosted a Technical Assistance (TA) mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within the framework of ongoing cooperation between the CBK and the IMF.

The mission of the IMF focuses on concluding the remaining technical assistance deliverables related to systemic risk analysis and stress testing, as part of the follow-up to the Kosovo Financial Sector Stability Review diagnostic. The mission team consists of Dimitrios Laliotis, Dulani Seneviratne, Constantinos Kyriakopoulos, and Jiri Panos. The visit will take place from 12 to 22 May 2026.

At the outset of the meeting, Governor Ismaili warmly welcomed the IMF experts and expressed appreciation for the Fund’s continued support to the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo, reaffirming the CBK’s strong commitment to strengthening its financial stability framework, implementing the recommendations of the previous Kosovo Financial Sector Stability Review, and further advancing the institutionalization of stress testing as a key tool for systemic risk monitoring as integrated component of financial stability analysis. Beyond the immediate technical outputs, the Governor stressed the importance of capacity building and knowledge transfer.

Discussions focused on key technical priorities, including the calibration of adverse macroeconomic scenarios for stress testing using statistically grounded approaches, the implementation of a full solvency stress testing exercise, the enhancement of liquidity stress testing through bank-specific Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) stress scenarios and the potential introduction of cash flow-based liquidity analysis, as well as the further development of system-wide liquidity analysis.

The IMF experts, in turn, commended CBK for its constructive cooperation, strong institutional commitment, and the significant progress achieved by the team in advancing the technical work related to systemic risk analysis and stress testing.

The project is expected to further strengthen CBK’s analytical capacity, improve the quality and credibility of its stress testing framework, and support a more integrated approach to monitoring solvency and liquidity risks across the banking system.

During the mission, IMF experts will work closely with CBK staff through hands-on technical sessions, supporting the execution of stress testing exercises and identifying remaining data, modeling, and analytical gaps. The findings and recommendations from this mission will inform CBK’s future work agenda and contribute to the continuous strengthening of Kosovo’s financial stability framework, in line with international best practices.