Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)

No accounting for leverage

The Basel Committee is set to unveil proposals for a leverage ratio in December as a means of constraining the excessive growth of bank balance sheets. But risk managers warn the proposals risk creating an unlevel playing field between US and European…

Being stressed is good for you

Increased regulatory focus means stress testing can no longer play a minor role in banks’ strategic thinking and capital considerations. Many institutions require cultural and procedural change to make this happen, but are they capable of bringing it…

Confidence crunch

Many financial institutions calibrate their required level of economic capital by considering the probability of default associated with a target debt rating. However, as the financial crisis has shown, confidence in a bank can erode before its Tier I…

The liquidity lifeline

The Basel Committee intends to introduce internationally binding liquidity standards, to include both a requirement for a liquid assets buffer and longer-term structural funding constraints. How will the measures be calculated and what will the…

Torrential reign

It never rains but it pours. International negotiations over the best way to regulate banks and financial markets continue, but bankers had better be prepared because much of what has been discussed in recent months will find its way into

The chemistry of compensation

Regulators across the world are clamping down on executive compensation in a bid to align employee remuneration with sound risk management principles. Despite the good intentions, many of the proposals could have unintended consequences. Peter Madigan…

Unlocking information

Throughout the crisis, banks have been criticised for failing to provide the quantity and quality of information needed for investors to gauge their financial health. But that trend could be reversed, with the Basel Committee zeroing in on disclosure as…

Ahead of the herd

The UK Financial Services Authority will finalise its new liquidity requirements by the end of the year, but certain aspects of the proposals remain highly contentious, and the regulator has been criticised for rushing ahead of the Basel Committee, which…

Provisioning for the future

A growing number of regulators have highlighted dynamic provisioning as a means of lessening pro-cyclicality in the financial system. José Mar√≠a Rold√°n, director-general of banking regulation at the Banco de Espa√±a and chair of the Standards…

A combined effort

Rather than running the business process and operational risk management frameworks in tandem, why not combine them and use one structure to comply with many rules? By Dennis Dickstein

Basel liquidity standards due in December

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is set to unveil quantitative liquidity requirements for public consultation at its quarterly meeting in December, the co-chair of the committee's liquidity working group has told Risk News.