and the development of a level playing field in international financial transactions, and it is therefore a threat to international financial stability. the caribbean is requesting that the imf, through its membership of the fsb, insist that the fsb refocus its engagement with the caribbean to concentrate on issues where the fsb can reinforce the efforts which the caribbean has been engaged in for many years, to upgrade and maintain surveillance of domestic and international financial sectors which offer international financial services of the highest quality and integrity. these activities are undertaken with the assistance of and in collaboration with the imf, the world bank and other international institutions, and the fsb should support already established processes. in this connection, the caribbean identifies the statistical data gaps as a priority for attention.

per cent. an additional important feature of the measures is that a certain amount of new lending is allowed above the specified thresholds. 17 these allowances recognise that higher loan - tovalue or loan - to - income mortgages can be appropriate in certain circumstances, as laid out in the banks ’ own credit policies, and can help to ease some valid concerns about market access difficulties, without permitting excessive leverage or credit risk to build up across the system as a whole. in addition, in december 2015, the bank announced the first settings of both the countercyclical capital buffer and other - systemically important institutions ( or o - sii ) capital buffer. 18 these measures are part of the capital requirements regulation toolkit which is applicable in all eu member states. the countercyclical capital buffer is a prudential tool designed to respond to fluctuations in the economic cycle and stabilise lending activity. when credit growth picks up, banks will be required to hold additional capital. when the economic cycle turns, banks will be able to release this, allowing stable lending to the real economy, through the cycle. although at present, following the central bank ’ s assessment, we have set this buffer at zero per cent for irish exposures. the o - sii buffer is an additional capital buffer applied to banks that are systemically important for the domestic economy. the central bank has set this buffer at 1. 5 per cent for its systemic institutions, to be phased in over the period 1 july 2019 to 1 july 2021. it is very clear to me that if these measures had been in place fifteen years ago, the scale of financial crisis experienced in ireland would have been much more limited. this time, our measures have been introduced early in the cyclical recovery in the market in order to prevent the recovery from becoming destabilised by excessive leverage being taken on by households. the mortgage rules in particular are designed to limit the risk of a house price – credit cycle emerging once again. while the parameters may in the future be amended, either tightened or loosened, in response to cyclical conditions, these measures, which seek to underpin prudent lending standards, have been introduced as permanent, structural features of the irish mortgage market. moreover, the evidence threshold to justify adjustments to these rules is significant. the loan - to - value measures include a maximum loan - to - value ratio of 80 per cent for non - first - time buyers of a primary residence, while for first -