Basel III: Finalising post-crisis reforms

This version

BCBS  | 
Standards
 | 
07 December 2017
 | 
Status:  Consolidated

Note

This standard has been integrated into the consolidated Basel Framework.

The Basel III framework is a central element of the Basel Committee's response to the global financial crisis. It addresses shortcomings of the pre-crisis regulatory framework and provides a regulatory foundation for a resilient banking system that supports the real economy.

A key objective of the revisions incorporated into the framework is to reduce excessive variability of risk-weighted assets (RWA). At the peak of the global financial crisis, a wide range of stakeholders lost faith in banks' reported risk-weighted capital ratios. The Committee's own empirical analyses also highlighted a worrying degree of variability in banks' calculation of RWA. The revisions to the regulatory framework will help restore credibility in the calculation of RWA by:

  • enhancing the robustness and risk sensitivity of the standardised approaches for credit risk and operational risk, which will facilitate the comparability of banks' capital ratios
  • constraining the use of internally modelled approaches
  • complementing the risk-weighted capital ratio with a finalised leverage ratio and a revised and robust capital floor

An accompanying document summarises the main features of these revisions. 

For more information on the Basel III reforms, see the Basel III webpage.