Basel II
The 1988 Capital Accord (Basel I) introduced capital adequacy measures for credit risk that were based on risk weights assigned to different classes of bank exposures. It was originally intended to be applicable to internationally active banks in the G-10 and other member countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States) of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. However, the framework was quickly adopted by national supervisors almost universally, making it an international standard. Subsequently, a capital measure for market risk introduced in 1996 has also met with wide acceptance, though it has not been as widely implemented. Nevertheless, significant deficiencies began to surface in the application of Basel I. The use of a uniform 100 percent risk weight for all commercial credits regardless of the risk profile of individual exposures led to distortions. Similarly, the treatment of cross-border and interbank claims also caused biases in credit allocation. Moreover, rapid changes in risk-management technology, including the increasing use of credit risk transfer instruments, needed to be recognized. The factors were among those that led to the development of a new capital accord.
The New Capital Framework (Basel II) represents a significant improvement over the original accord and seeks to provide more risk-sensitive methodologies to align capital requirements with riskiness of banks assets. Under Basel II, the risk weights can be determined using different approaches based on ratings either assigned to bank exposures by external agencies (standardized approach) or internally assigned through supervisor - validated, value-at-risk (VAR) approaches using default probabilities (internal-ratings - based [IRB] approaches). Extensive guidance has also been provided on the expanded credit risk mitigation techniques and their application, as well as on the treatment of securitization and specialized lending. The methodology for market risk capital has been kept almost unchanged while a new capital charge for operational risk has been introduced. Apart from laying out different approaches of varying degrees of sophistication, the Basel II framework also provides for a high degree of national discretion. In addition to laying out methodology to compute minimum capital requirements (Pillar I), the new Basel framework also incorporates guiding principles on the supervisory review of bank risk management (Pillar II) and promotes market discipline through enhanced disclosure requirements (Pillar III).
Member countries of the Basel Committee are expected to implement the Basel framework beginning at the end of 2006. Both the existing and new systems will be run in parallel for a year. While most European Union (EU) countries are expected to implement Basel II in full for their banking systems, many other countries can be expected to implement a mixture of Basel I and Basel II for different parts of their banking systems. Thus, after 2007, assessors can expect banking systems to be applying a bifurcated stan-
dard. The assessment of this bifurcated standard will be made further challenging by the fact that there are several different approaches in Basel II for both credit and operational risk, as well as for several areas of national discretion in Pillar I, which could affect crossinstitution and cross-country comparisons of capital regimes.
In the period before implementation, national authorities are beginning to examine more closely the various options, as well as the necessity and possibility of applying them. National authorities are also under pressure from the banks in their jurisdictions to refrain from taking actions that would raise capital requirements or increase costs for the system; the banking supervisors are worrying about the lack of capacity to deal with the technical issues in the new Basel framework. International banks face the possibility of being subject to multiple capital regimes through national requirements in different jurisdictions, the resolution of which will require the development of effective systems for cooperation between home and host country supervisors. In contrast, local banks in developing countries are apprehensive about competitive concerns because they fear that foreign banks could gain advantage from using the more advanced approaches that could lower groupwide capital requirements.
Effective implementation of the new capital framework will promote better risk-management practices, more risk-focused bank supervision, and stronger market discipline. However, the framework has been written with the internationally active G-10 banks in mind. Many jurisdictions may not find the proposals easy, or even relevant, to implement. Further, there are other supervisory priorities to be addressed in many countries, and weak implementation may not provide the required comfort but, instead, may divert scarce supervisory and other resources. For this reason, a good level of compliance with the BCPs is considered to be a precondition to considering Basel II implementation.
The Fund, together with the Bank and other international donors, would develop technical assistance programs for countries that seek assistance to implement some or all parts of the new Basel framework within the constraints of available budgets. Finally, countries will not be assessed under the BCPs on the basis of whether or not they have chosen to implement Basel II, but will be assessed against the standard that they have chosen to apply, be it Basel I or Basel II.
