Basel Committee reports to G20 Leaders on global implementation of its standards

Press release  | 
11 June 2012

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today published its report to the G20 Leaders on the implementation of its banking standards across member countries. The report will be considered at the G20 Leaders Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on 18-19 June.

"With this report, the Basel Committee is following up on the commitments made by the G20 Leaders in Cannes to have Basel III implemented fully and consistently, and within the agreed timetable" said Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Committee and Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank. "To date, significant progress has been made, but there are a number of countries that have missed the globally-agreed implementation dates for Basel II and 2.5, and where their ability to meet the Basel III implementation deadline of 1 January 2013 could prove a significant challenge".

The Basel Committee's implementation review process includes three levels of review:

  • Level 1: ensuring the timely adoption of Basel III
  • Level 2: ensuring regulatory consistency with Basel III
  • Level 3: ensuring the consistency of outcomes initially focusing on risk-weighted assets (RWA)

The preliminary Level 2 assessments of domestic rules in the European Union, Japan and the United States have identified areas of divergence between domestic regulations and the Basel standards. Commenting on the Level 2 assessments, Mr Ingves said "The interim findings are subject to further detailed analysis, but this report highlights key areas where domestic implementation may be weaker than the globally-agreed standards".

The Level 3 assessments are analysing consistency of RWAs in the banking book and trading book across banks and jurisdictions. The work is exploratory at this stage but could eventually lead to policy recommendations to deal with potential inconsistencies.

The Level 1 progress reports will continue to be published twice yearly. The full results for the first three Level 2 assessments of the EU, Japan and the US are expected to be published by the Committee around the end of September 2012. The two Level 3 assessments of RWAs in the banking book and the trading book will deliver initial findings to the Committee by the end of 2012.