The Financial Stability Committee (FSN) of the Central Bank of Iceland takes decisions on the application of the Bank’s financial stability policy instruments. Financial stability means that the financial system is equipped to withstand shocks to the economy and financial markets, to intermediate credit and payments, and to diversify risks appropriately.
At its meeting of 1 and 2 June 2026, the Committee was given a presentation on developments and prospects for the economy and for financial stability. The Committee decided to hold the countercyclical buffer unchanged at 2.5% of domestic exposures. The Committee made also a decision on systemically important infrastructure.
The FSN decided unanimously to hold the buffer unchanged at 2.5% of domestic exposures. The buffer rate is therefore at the upper end of the 2-2.5% range that the Committee has designated in its policy on the CCyB as the neutral value; that is, when financial system risk is neither unusually high nor unusually low.
The FSN decided that the following financial market infrastructure components shall be considered systemically important and of such a nature that their activities could affect financial stability: The Central Bank’s interbank payment system and the Nasdaq securities settlement system, which are defined as basic financial system infrastructure; and the Financial Market Data Centre’s deposit system and payment system, as well as Auðkenni ehf.’s electronic authentication for financial services, all of which are defined as core financial market infrastructure. The committee had previously designated the Central Bank’s interbank payment system and the Nasdaq securities settlement system as systemically important infrastructure, but in accordance with the new Rules on Oversight of Systemically Important Financial Market Infrastructure, which were approved in late 2025, these systems are now classified as basic infrastructure.
The Committee discussed key factors affecting financial stability at its meeting, such as global uncertainty and economic developments, exchange rate of the króna and international reserves, housholds’ and businesses’ position, residential property market, banking system resilience, stress test and payment intermediation.