Strengthening bank capital - Basel III and beyond

Keynote address by Mr Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, to the Ninth High Level Meeting for the Middle East & North Africa Region, jointly organised by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Financial Stability Institute and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 18 November 2013.

Good morning everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to speak about what - among the myriad of recent regulatory initiatives - has probably been the most important: strengthening bank capital.

Strengthening bank capital is not simply about asking banks to hold more capital. Rather, it is a broader objective that involves ensuring the functioning of the entire capital regime. The Basel Committee's approach has therefore been to work extensively on the consistent implementation of the regulatory capital framework. The ultimate goal is to implement Basel III so that it strengthens the quantity, quality, consistency and reliability of bank capital ratios around the world.