In this connection, the heterogeneity in households’ financial situation is proving very significant from the financial stability standpoint. Taking the Banco de España’s Survey of Household Finances (EFF), we find that the industries most affected by the pandemic used youths and women proportionally more than other sectors, also employing a higher percentage of low-wage workers. These lower wages would be partly offset by the fact that the employees concerned lived with other household members with higher income. As regards their finances, 28% of workers in the social industries lived in 2017 in households whose financial assets amounted to less than one month’s income, and around 8% had bank debts whose payments exceeded 40% of the household’s gross income. Accordingly, the labour income and financial situation of the households of workers in the social industries were in 2017 more fragile than those of employees in other, regular industries. Overall, then, the non-financial private sector’s financial position has worsened. The consequences of this for credit institutions’ results will become fully patent in the coming quarters. Clearly, too, the improvements in the quality of the Spanish banking sector’s balance sheet and in its solvency levels in the past decade have placed it in a better position to absorb this crisis and to continue providing the financing the economy needs. And the sector’s risks to financial stability have been mitigated by the various economic policy measures adopted. In any event, banks’ income statements have already been adversely affected.
In this respect, the BCBS, which I have the honour to chair, has resolved to delay by one year (from 2022 to 2023) the implementation of the revised methodology of identification of global systemically important institutions and also the full implementation of Basel III. The BCBS has also postponed the end of the transitional period for capital requirement floors for banks using internal models to 1 January 2028. In any event, the BCBS has confirmed that all jurisdictions are committed to the full, consistent and timely transposition of the Basel III regulations in accordance with the new calendar. Second, in the accounting sphere, certain aspects relating to how the existing regulations should be applied to calculate credit risk have been clarified, to ensure that potential temporary delays in loan repayments by borrowers are not treated as if they were a case of permanent impairment of loan quality. The latter would lead to an immediate and abrupt correction in credit ratings and, therefore, to an increase in the provisions required, which  3  See P. Aguilar, Ó. Arce, S. Hurtado, J. Martínez-Martín, G. Nuño and C. Thomas (2020), The ECB monetary policy response to the COVID-19 crisis, Occasional Paper No 2026. Banco de España. 12  would ultimately lead to a decline in credit extended by banks. In exchange, especially should the crisis become prolonged, it is necessary to ensure that misuse of this flexibility does not lead to inappropriate accounting practices that may translate into delayed recognition of actual quality impairment of some credit exposures.