The five “domestic systemically important” banks

In June 2014, the Bank of Mauritius issued the Guideline for Dealing with Domestic-Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) which sets out the methodology to be applied for assessing the systemic importance of banks and the ensuing capital surcharge to be maintained by them. 

The methodology consisted of identifying those banks whose Segment A (domestic / resident) assets represented at least 3.5% of GDP at market prices and then assessing their importance in terms of five key indicators, namely, size, exposure to large groups, interconnectedness, complexity and substitutability on the basis of data provided. 

The last assessment was carried out in January 2020 and five banks were identified as D-SIBs, namely:

The Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd, 

SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd, 

Barclays Bank Mauritius Limited (now known as Absa Bank (Mauritius) Limited), 

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and 

AfrAsia Bank Limited. 

The current assessment was carried out again in June 2021 and the same above-named five banks were determined to be systemically important for the Mauritian jurisdiction. There are 19 entities which hold a banking license in Mauritius.