Timeline
January 23 2009 - First "Vienna Initiative" (VI) meeting takes place at the Austrian Ministry of Finance under T. Wieser’s chairmanship, with participation from central banks and ministries of finance from many Central and Eastern European countries, key advanced EU countries which are home authorities of cross-border banks, and IFIs (IMF, EBRD, EIB, World Bank, IFC). EBRD / E. Berglöf introduces the concept of a collective action platform between the public and private sectors labeled "Vienna Club". It is agreed that the IMF (with the lead of Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf, Senior Adviser) develops principles of burden sharing between home and host authorities and banks.
March 17 2009 – The second "Vienna Initiative" meeting takes place in the Joint Vienna Institute under the chairmanship of T. Wieser (now also head of EFC). IMF (David Hardy, Division Chief) presents a distribution of burden sharing rules between home and host country authorities which are broadly agreed on to be used during the crisis.
September 24 2009 – First Full-Forum meeting of the Vienna Initiative in Brussels under the chairmanship of John Berrigan, Director DG ECFIN. The meeting takes stock of progress under the VI and discusses, for the first time, possible relaxation of deleveraging in the future - first signal of moving out of the systemic risk phase. Participants: 17 parent bank groups, their home and host supervisors and fiscal authorities, IMF, EC (also Competition policy), EBRD, EIB, WB, ECB, and CEBS.
March 17/18 2010 – Second Full-forum meeting under the Vienna Initiative in Athens to take stock; signal a moving out of the systemic risk phase (while the framework remains in place for future use and for selected countries); and discuss how to use the Vienna Initiative’s collective action framework beyond crisis management. Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece Mr. Papadakis summarised that the VI had worked and should continue in view of continued risks. To test the usefulness of using the framework for policy discussions, two working groups are set up with topics of urgent relevance for the VI stakeholders: one on local currency market development and one on the absorption of EU funds. Participants: 20 bank groups, their home and host supervisors and fiscal authorities, IMF, EC, EBRD, EIB, WB, ECB, CEBS.
March 17/18 2011 – Third Full Forum meeting of the Vienna Initiative in Brussels to consider the recommendations of the two working groups (Local Currency and Capital Market Development and Absorption of EU funds) and decide on the Future of Vienna Initiative. The stakeholders assess that (i) the VI was a success for crisis management and its framework should be preserved as such given remaining risks; (ii) the VI’s main focus should be shifted to cover issues of crisis prevention that benefit from its unique private-public sector composition, based on the model of the first two working groups. Two new Working Groups are set up, one on the implications of the new Basel III regulations for emerging Europe; and the other on dealing with nonperforming assets. Interim reports are expected by end-September 2011.
March 24/25 2011 – The approach of the Vienna Initiative is brought to the euro zone discussions. In the European Council’s Conclusion on the new European Monetary System (EMS) the Vienna Initiative is cited as an approach for private sector involvement: “If, on the basis of a sustainability analysis, it is concluded that a macro-economic adjustment programme can realistically restore the public debt to a sustainable path, the beneficiary Member State will take initiatives aimed at encouraging the main private investors to maintain their exposures (e.g. a "Vienna Initiative" approach).”
For more information on the meetings of the Vienna Inititative and to view presentations, please view the full timeline.