Annual Financial Statements 2020

86 ANNEXURE CRISK AND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT CONTINUED Credit risk Credit RISKS Funding and liquidity Market Operational STANDARD BANK NAMIBIA LIMITED Annual financial statements 2020 Definition Credit risk is the risk of loss arising out of the failure of obligors to meet their financial or contractual obligations when due. It is composed of obligor risk (including borrowers and trading counterparties), concentration risk and country risk. Approach to managing and measuring credit risk The company's credit risk is a function of its business model and arises from wholesale and retail loans and advances, underwriting and guarantee commitments, as well as from the counterparty credit risk arising from derivative and securities financing contracts entered into with our customers and trading counterparties. To the extent equity risk is held on the banking book, it is also managed under the credit risk governance framework, except in so far as approval authority rests with board risk committee (BRC). The management of credit risk is aligned to the company's three lines of defence framework. The business function owns the credit risk assumed by the company and as the first line of defence is primarily responsible for its management, control and optimisation in the course of business generation. The credit function acts as the second line of defence and is responsible for providing independent and objective approval and oversight for the credit risk-taking activities of business, to ensure the process of procuring revenue, while assuming optimal risk, is undertaken with integrity. Further second-line oversight is provided by the company risk function through independent credit risk assurance. The third line of defence is provided by internal audit (GIA), under its mandate from the board audit committee (BAC). The fourth line of defence is provided by external audit. Credit risk is managed through: • maintaining a culture of responsible lending and a robust risk policy and control framework . identifying, assessing and measuring credit risk across the company, from an individual facility level through to an aggregate portfolio level ⚫ defining, implementing and continually re-evaluating risk appetite under actual and stressed conditions • • monitoring the company's credit risk exposure relative to approved limits ensuring that there is expert scrutiny and approval of credit risk and its mitigation independently of the business functions. A credit portfolio limit framework has been defined to monitor and control the credit risk profile within the company's approved risk appetite. All primary lending credit limits are set and exposures measured on the basis of risk weighting in order to best estimate exposure at default (EAD). Pre-settlement counterparty credit risk (CCR) inherent in trading book exposures is measured on a potential future exposure (PFE) basis, modelled at a defined level of confidence, using approved methodologies and models, and controlled within explicit approved limits for the counterparties concerned. Credit risk mitigation Wherever warranted, the company will attempt to mitigate credit risk, including CCR to any counterparty, transaction, sector, or geographic region, so as to achieve the optimal balance between risk, cost, capital utilisation and reward. Risk mitigation may include the use of collateral, the imposition of financial or behavioural covenants, the acceptance of guarantees from parents or third parties, the recognition of parental support, and the distribution of risk. Collateral, parental guarantees, credit derivatives and on- and off-balance sheet netting are widely used to mitigate credit risk. Credit risk mitigation policies and procedures ensure that risk mitigation techniques are acceptable, used consistently, valued appropriately and regularly, and meet the risk requirements of operational management for legal, practical and timely enforcement. Detailed processes and procedures are in place to guide each type of mitigation used. In the case of collateral where the company has an unassailable legal title, the company's policy is such that collateral is required to meet certain criteria for recognition in LGD modelling, including that it: ⚫ is readily marketable and liquid ⚫is legally perfected and enforceable • has a low valuation volatility is readily realisable at minimum expense ⚫ has no material correlation to the obligor credit quality ⚫ has an active secondary market for resale. The main types of collateral obtained by the company for its banking book exposures include: ⚫ mortgage bonds over residential, commercial and industrial properties • cession of book debts • pledge and cession of financial assets ⚫ bonds over plant and equipment ⚫ the underlying movable assets financed under leases and instalment sales. Reverse repurchase agreements and commodity leases to customers are collateralised by the underlying assets. Guarantees and related legal contracts are often required, particularly in support of credit extension to groups of companies and weaker obligors. Guarantors include banks, parent companies, shareholders and associated obligors. Creditworthiness is established for the guarantor as for other obligor credit approvals. For trading and derivatives transactions where collateral support is considered necessary, the company typically uses internationally recognised and enforceable ISDA agreements, with a credit support annexure (CSA). Netting agreements, such as collateral under the CSA of an ISDA agreement, are only obtained where the company firstly, has a legally enforceable right to offset credit risk by way of such an agreement, and secondly, where the company has the intention of utilising such agreement to settle on a net basis. Other credit protection terms may be stipulated, such as limitations on the amount of unsecured credit exposure acceptable, collateralisation if the mark-to-market credit exposure exceeds acceptable limits, and termination of the contract if certain credit events occur, for example, downgrade of the counterparty's public credit rating. Wrong-way risk arises in transactions where the likelihood of default (i.e. the PD by a counterparty and the size of credit exposure (as measured by EAD) to that counterparty tend to increase at the same time. This risk is managed both at an individual counterparty level and at an aggregate portfolio level by limiting exposure to such transactions, taking adverse correlation into account in the measurement and mitigation of credit exposure and increasing oversight and approval levels. The company has no appetite for wrong-way risk arising where the correlation between EAD and PD is due to a legal, economic, strategic or similar relationship (i.e. specific wrong-way risk). General wrong-way risk, which arises when the correlation between EAD and PD for the counterparty, due mainly to macro factors, is closely managed within existing risk frameworks. To manage actual or potential portfolio risk concentrations in areas of higher credit risk and credit portfolio growth, the company implements hedging and other strategies from time-to-time. This is done at individual counterparty, sub- portfolio and portfolio levels through the use of syndication, distribution and sale of assets, asset and portfolio limit management, credit derivatives and credit protection. Use of internal estimates Our credit risk rating systems and processes differentiate and quantify credit risk across counterparties and asset classes. Internal risk parameters are used extensively in risk management and business processes, including: ⚫ setting risk appetite ⚫ setting concentration and counterparty limits ⚫ credit approval and monitoring Corporate, sovereign and banking portfolios Corporate entities include large companies, as well as SMEs that are managed on a relationship basis. Corporate exposures also include specialised lending (project, object and commodity finance, as well as income-producing real estate (IPRE) and public sector entities. Sovereign and bank borrowers include sovereign government entities, central banks, local and provincial government entities, bank and non-bank financial institutions. The creditworthiness of corporate (excluding specialised lending), sovereign and bank exposures is assessed based on a detailed individual assessment of the financial strength of the borrower. This quantitative analysis, together with expert judgement and external rating agency ratings, leads to an assignment of an internal rating to the entity. Specialised lending's creditworthiness is assessed on a transactional level, rather than on the financial strength of the borrower, in so far as the group relies only on repayment from the cash flows generated by the underlying assets financed. Concentration risk management is performed to ensure that credit exposure concentrations in respect of obligors, countries, sectors and other risk areas are effectively managed. This includes concentrations arising from credit exposure to different entities within an obligor economic group, such as exposure to public sector and other government entities that are related to the same sovereign. Credit portfolio characteristics and metrics Maximum exposure to credit risk Debt financial assets at amortised cost and FVOCI as well as off-balance sheet exposure subject to an ECL are analysed and categorised based on credit quality using the company's master rating scale. Exposures within stage 1 and 2 are rated between 1 to 25 in terms of the company's master rating scale. The company uses a 25-point master rating scale to quantify the credit risk for each borrower (corporate asset classes) or facility (specialised lending and retail asset classes), as illustrated in the table below. These ratings are mapped to PDs by means of calibration formulae that use historical default rates and other data from the applicable PPB portfolios. The company distinguishes between through-the-cycle PDS and point-in-time PDs, and utilises both measures in decision-making, managing credit risk exposures and measuring impairments against credit exposures. Exposures which are in default are not considered in the 1 to 25-point master rating scale. Default The company's definition of default has been aligned to its internal credit risk management definitions and approaches. Whilst the specific determination of default varies according to the nature of the product, it is generally determined (aligned to the Basel definition) as occurring at the earlier of: ⚫ where, in the company's view, the counterparty is considered to be unlikely to pay amounts due on the due date or shortly thereafter without recourse to actions such as the realisation of security; or ⚫ when the counterparty is past due for more than 90 days (or, in the case of overdraft facilities in excess of the current limit). The company will not rebut IFRS 9's 90 days past due rebuttable presumption. A financial asset is considered to be in default when there is objective evidence of impairment. The following criteria are used in determining whether there is objective evidence of impairment for financial assets or groups of financial assets: • • significant financial difficulty of borrower and/or modification (i.e. known cash flow difficulties experienced by the borrower) a breach of contract, such as default or delinquency in interest and/or principal payments ⚫ disappearance of active market due to financial difficulties ⚫ it becomes probable that the borrower will enter bankruptcy or other financial reorganisation • where the company, for economic or legal reasons relating to the borrower's financial difficulty, grants the borrower a concession that the company would not otherwise consider. Exposures which are overdue for more than 90 days are also considered to be in default. 87