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Basel Framework

The Basel Framework is the full set of standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks. The membership of the BCBS has agreed to fully implement these standards and apply them to the internationally active banks in their jurisdictions. The background page describes the framework's structure and how to navigate it.

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OPE10

Definitions and application

This chapter defines operational risk and the components of the Business Indicator used to calculate capital requirements for operational risk. In addition, this chapter describes the application within a banking group of the standardised approach for measuring operational risk capital requirements.

  • Effective as of: 01 Jan 2022
  • Last update: 15 Dec 2019
  • Status Removed on 27 Mar 2020

Definition of operational risk

10.1

Operational risk is defined as the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events. This definition includes legal risk,1 but excludes strategic and reputational risk.

1

Legal risk includes, but is not limited to, exposure to fines, penalties, or punitive damages resulting from supervisory actions, as well as private settlements.

Definition of Business Indicator components

10.2

Table 1 defines the components of the Business Indicator (BI).

Business Indicator definitions

Table 1

BI component

Income statement or balance sheet items

Description

Typical sub-items

Interest, lease and dividend

Interest income

Interest income from all financial assets and other interest income

(includes interest income from financial and operating leases and profits from leased assets)

  • Interest income from loans and advances, assets available for sale, assets held to maturity, trading assets, financial leases and operational leases
  • Interest income from hedge accounting derivatives
  • Other interest income
  • Profits from leased assets

Interest expenses

Interest expenses from all financial liabilities and other interest expenses

(includes interest expense from financial and operating leases, depreciation and impairment of, and losses from, operating leased assets)

  • Interest expenses from deposits, debt securities issued, financial leases, and operating leases
  • Interest expenses from hedge accounting derivatives
  • Other interest expenses
  • Losses from leased assets
  • Depreciation and impairment of operating leased assets

Interest earning assets (balance sheet item)

Total gross outstanding loans, advances, interest bearing securities (including government bonds), and lease assets measured at the end of each financial year

Dividend income

Dividend income from investments in stocks and funds not consolidated in the bank's financial statements, including dividend income from non-consolidated subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures.

Services

Fee and commission income

Income received from providing advice and services. Includes income received by the bank as an outsourcer of financial services.

Fee and commission income from:

  • Securities (issuance, origination, reception, transmission, execution of orders on behalf of customers)
  • Clearing and settlement; Asset management; Custody; Fiduciary transactions; Payment services; Structured finance; Servicing of securitisations; Loan commitments and guarantees given; and foreign transactions

Fee and commission expenses

Expenses paid for receiving advice and services. Includes outsourcing fees paid by the bank for the supply of financial services, but not outsourcing fees paid for the supply of non-financial services (eg logistical, IT, human resources)

Fee and commission expenses from:

  • Clearing and settlement; Custody; Servicing of securitisations; Loan commitments and guarantees received; and Foreign transactions

Other operating income

Income from ordinary banking operations not included in other BI items but of similar nature

(income from operating leases should be excluded)

  • Rental income from investment properties
  • Gains from non-current assets and disposal groups classified as held for sale not qualifying as discontinued operations (IFRS 5.37)

Other operating expenses

Expenses and losses from ordinary banking operations not included in other BI items but of similar nature and from operational loss events (expenses from operating leases should be excluded)

  • Losses from non-current assets and disposal groups classified as held for sale not qualifying as discontinued operations (IFRS 5.37)
  • Losses incurred as a consequence of operational loss events (eg fines, penalties, settlements, replacement cost of damaged assets), which have not been provisioned/reserved for in previous years
  • Expenses related to establishing provisions/reserves for operational loss events

Financial

Net profit (loss) on the trading book

  • Net profit/loss on trading assets and trading liabilities (derivatives, debt securities, equity securities, loans and advances, short positions, other assets and liabilities)
  • Net profit/loss from hedge accounting
  • Net profit/loss from exchange differences

Net profit (loss) on the banking book

  • Net profit/loss on financial assets and liabilities measured at fair value through profit and loss
  • Realised gains/losses on financial assets and liabilities not measured at fair value through profit and loss (loans and advances, assets available for sale, assets held to maturity, financial liabilities measured at amortised cost)
  • Net profit/loss from hedge accounting
  • Net profit/loss from exchange differences
         
FAQ1
FAQ1

Should credit obligations on non-accrued status (eg non-performing loans) be classified as interest-earning assets for purposes of the calculation of Interest, Leases, and Dividend Component of the BI? 

Yes. All outstanding credit obligations in the balance sheet, including credit obligations on non-accrued status (eg non-performing loans), should be included in interest-earning assets for the purposes of the calculation of Interest, Leases, and Dividend Component of the BI.

10.3

The following profit and loss items do not contribute to any of the items of the BI:

  1. Income and expenses from insurance or reinsurance businesses.
  2. Premiums paid and reimbursements/payments received from insurance or reinsurance policies purchased.
  3. Administrative expenses, including staff expenses, outsourcing fees paid for the supply of non-financial services (eg logistical, human resources, information technology – IT), and other administrative expenses (eg IT, utilities, telephone, travel, office supplies, postage).
  4. Recovery of administrative expenses including recovery of payments on behalf of customers (eg taxes debited to customers).
  5. Expenses of premises and fixed assets (except when these expenses result from operational loss events).
  6. Depreciation/amortisation of tangible and intangible assets (except depreciation related to operating lease assets, which should be included in financial and operating lease expenses).
  7. Provisions/reversal of provisions (eg on pensions, commitments and guarantees given) except for provisions related to operational loss events.
  8. Expenses due to share capital repayable on demand.
  9. Impairment/reversal of impairment (eg on financial assets, non-financial assets, investments in subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates).
  10. Changes in goodwill recognised in profit or loss.
  11. Corporate income tax (tax based on profits including current tax and deferred).

Application of the standardised approach within a banking group

10.4

At the consolidated level, the standardised approach calculations use fully consolidated BI figures, which net all the intragroup income and expenses. The calculations at a sub-consolidated level use BI figures for the banks consolidated at that particular sub-level. The calculations at the subsidiary level use the BI figures from the subsidiary.

10.5

Similar to bank holding companies, when BI figures for sub-consolidated or subsidiary banks reach bucket 2, these banks are required to use loss experience in the standardised approach calculations. A sub-consolidated bank or a subsidiary bank uses only the losses it has incurred in the standardised approach calculations (and does not include losses incurred by other parts of the bank holding company).

10.6

In case a subsidiary of a bank belonging to bucket 2 or higher does not meet the qualitative standards for the use of the Loss Component, this subsidiary must calculate the standardised approach capital requirements by applying 100% of the BI Component. In such cases supervisors may require the subsidiary to apply an internal loss multiplier which is greater than 1.

Background to the Basel Framework

The Basel Framework is a consolidated version of the full set of standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks. The membership of the BCBS has agreed to fully implement these standards and apply them to the internationally active banks in their jurisdictions.

Structure

The framework comprises the 14 standards listed below. Each standard is divided into chapters, and many chapters have multiple versions, eg a chapter may have a version that is applicable now and one that will become applicable after the Basel III reforms have been implemented. The full breakdown of all chapters and versions is available here.

If you would like to explore the source material for the consolidated Basel Framework, there is a mapping table that links each of the paragraphs of the BCBS's original published standards to their locations within the first published version the framework.

Other features of the framework include:

  • Interactive cross-references to make it easier to navigate.
  • A "time traveller" feature, which lets you select a future date and see the framework as it is due to apply at that date.
  • Answers to frequently asked questions displayed directly underneath the paragraphs to which they relate.
  • A section to view all past and future planned changes to the Basel Framework.
  • An improved search function, which makes it easier to find specific content in each standard.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the consolidated Basel Framework, please let us know at baselcommittee@bis.org.

This standard describes the scope of application of the Basel Framework.

This standard describes the criteria that bank capital instruments must meet to be eligible to satisfy the Basel capital requirements, as well as necessary regulatory adjustments and transitional arrangements.

This standard describes the framework for risk-based capital requirements.

This standard describes how to calculate capital requirements for credit risk.

This standard describes how to calculate capital requirements for market risk and credit valuation adjustment risk.

This standard describes how to calculate capital requirements for operational risk.

This standard describes the simple, transparent, non-risk-based leverage ratio. This measure intends to restrict the build-up of leverage in the banking sector and reinforce the risk-based requirements with a simple, non-risk-based "backstop" measure.

This standard describes the Liquidity Coverage Ratio, a measure which promotes the short-term resilience of a bank's liquidity risk profile.

The net stable funding ratio requires banks to maintain a stable funding profile in relation to the composition of their assets and off-balance-sheet activities.

Large exposures regulation limits the maximum loss that a bank could face in the event of a sudden counterparty failure to a level that does not endanger the bank's solvency. This standard requires banks to measure their exposures to a single counterparty or a group of connected counterparties and limit the size of large exposures in relation to their capital.

This standard establishes minimum standards for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives. Such requirements reduce systemic risk with respect to non-standardised derivatives by reducing contagion and spillover risks and promoting central clearing.

The Pillar 2 supervisory review process ensures that banks have adequate capital and liquidity to support all the risks in their business, especially with respect to risks not fully captured by the Pillar 1 process, and encourages good risk management.

This standard sets out disclosure requirements, which aim to encourage market discipline.

The Basel Core Principles provide a comprehensive standard for establishing a sound foundation for the regulation, supervision, governance and risk management of the banking sector.

The Basel Framework homepage lists all 14 standards together with a short description of their content. The "effective as of" date is the date by which the members of the BCBS have agreed to implement the standards. By default, this date is set to the launch date of the consolidated framework for standards that were already in force at the launch of the framework. For standards that have chapters that are due to change in the future, a "next version" date is shown.

Click on the name of any standard to get the list of chapters that it contains. By default, you will see the current versions of the standards that are in effect as of the day you are using the website. In cases where new chapter versions are due to come into effect in the future, the chapter can be accessed by clicking the "new future version" link shown at the bottom of the chapter description.

Video 9 April 2019
Navigating the Basel Framework
This tutorial explains the features of the Basel Committee's consolidated framework, bringing global standards for bank regulation and supervision together in one place.

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