Just get it done
Remarks by Neil Esho, Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), at the 20th High-Level Meeting on Financial Stability and Regulatory and Supervisory Priorities, Abu Dhabi, 10 December 2025.
The full and consistent implementation of the Basel III standards, which aim to ensure global consistency, remains the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's top priority. But when it comes to Basel III implementation the time has come, to borrow the words of a former BCBS Chair, to "just get it done". This speech covers the transition to Basel III implementation, the recent debate around regulatory simplification, and elements of the Basel Committee's ongoing work programme. The Committee worked to balance simplicity, risk sensitivity and comparability when designing Basel III, but it would be naive to think the existing global regulatory framework has perfectly balanced the various trade-offs involved. Amid a renewed international focus on regulatory simplification, there are areas where the complexity of the global framework could be reduced. But the challenges associated with simplification should not be underestimated and resilience of the system should be maintained. As part of its forward-looking work programme, the Committee is continuing to explore the challenges posed by growing interconnectedness between banks and non-bank financial intermediaries (or NBFIs), as well as the digitalisation of finance, notably through cryptoassets. The Committee remains committed to strengthening supervisory effectiveness, a key aspect of safeguarding financial stability.
