Risk Capacity Index: A Methodological Proposal for Comprehensive Management in Colombian Solidarity Sector Entities

Prudential regulation traditionally evaluates credit, market, and liquidity risks through separate indicators, providing a fragmented assessment of institutions’ financial soundness. This study proposes the Risk Capacity Index (ICR) as an integrated measure of the structural risk-bearing capacity of organizations in the Colombian solidarity sector. Rather than measuring individual risks in isolation, the proposed framework evaluates the capacity of available equity to absorb aggregate financial exposure by integrating Expected Loss, Value at Risk, and the Liquidity Gap within a single prudential metric. The conceptual design of the ICR is grounded in the notion that equity constitutes the institution’s ultimate loss-absorbing constraint, while its operational specification is developed using supervisory risk measures applicable to cooperative financial institutions. The methodology combines analytical sensitivity analysis with a forward-looking stress-testing framework based on the Prudential Regulation Authority approach. Results demonstrate that the ICR exhibits nonlinear deterioration as aggregate risk exposure increases, with liquidity risk emerging as the principal determinant of financial fragility and the viability threshold. The theoretical contribution of the ICR lies not in replacing existing prudential ratios, but in providing an integrated institution-level measure that jointly relates available loss-absorbing capital to simultaneous exposures across multiple financial risks within a common analytical framework. The proposed index therefore complements established measures of capital adequacy, liquidity resilience, and financial soundness by offering a consolidated perspective on institutional risk-bearing capacity.