Fundamental Criticism on SRISK

The SRISK measures the need for recapitalization of a financial institution conditional to a market shock of great importance. Widely disseminated in the academic community, in professional circles (financial analysts, economic research services, regulators, etc.) and in some mainstream media, the SRISK is posted for a large number of financial institutions with regular updates on web sites. In this paper, we present some weaknesses that are strong limits of the SRISK model. They concern in particular the lack of definition of the “k” ratio, applying the same approach to fundamentally different financial institutions and taking into account the market value of equity in a prudential framework. At the confluence of macroeconomics, finance and regulation, the measurement of systemic risk cannot be based on a single criterion uniformly imposed to all financial institutions. At this stage of its development, SRISK cannot be used to define normatively capital requirements of financial institutions.