The role of the Global Actuary in banking in the face of bank failures

Kennisbank •

In their normal banking activities, banks are in the business of maturity transformation, where they raise deposits and other forms of funding (liabilities to the bank) from those with excess cash and lend to those in need of loans (assets to the bank).

The role of the Global Actuary in banking in the face of bank failures

This scenario exposes banks to various risks, key of which is mismatching risks between assets and liabilities, as liabilities are often of a shorter duration whilst assets are often of a longer duration.


This can lead to bank liquidity and funding crises where a bank may not be able to raise funds at short notice when needed to finance any outflow of deposits. This has been the case with the recent Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) failure in the United States in March 2023, due to what is known as “a run on the bank” as customers demanded their deposits at a time when the Bank was short of cash and liquid assets, and could not raise fresh capital at short notice. This was the second largest US bank failure behind Washington Mutual that collapsed in 2008.


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Over de auteur

Michael Tichareva

M.T. Tichareva BComm (Hons.), FASSA, FIA, MBA is Chair of the International Actuarial Association Banking Virtual Forum and Executive Chairman & Senior Actuary – Claxon Actuaries International.