Kerstin af Jochnick: The completion of Basel III - the start of something new

Speech by Ms Kerstin af Jochnick, First Deputy Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, Centre for Business and Policy Studies, Stockholm, 31 January 2017.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Accompanying slides.

I would like to thank Tomas Edlund for his help with this speech.

The work of the Basel Committee is important and affects Sweden 

Good morning. Thank you to the Centre for Business and Policy Studies for inviting me here to talk about Basel III and what it may entail for Sweden. 

Recently there have been several attempts by different parties to analyse how the Basel Committee's completion of the Basel III Accord may affect the global financial system. Some people question whether it is really necessary for the regulation of banks' capital requirements to be amended yet again, and wonder how this will affect, for instance, the Swedish banks. As I have recently, in my capacity as member of the Basel Committee, been involved in discussing various parts of Basel III, I would like to give my own views on the subject today. I hope this will answer some of the questions now being raised.

However, I would like to point out from the start that no final agreement on the finalisation of Basel III has yet been achieved. Still, the main features of the agreement are relatively clear at this point, and the Basel Committee is now working on the final details. However, I do not intend to focus on the details today, as they are many, but instead on the fundamental blocks on which Basel III is built.