Basel III: towards a safer financial system

Speech by Mr Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the BIS, at the 3rd Santander International Banking Conference, Madrid, 15 September 2010.

Abstract

Basel III represents a fundamental strengthening - in some cases, a radical overhaul - of global capital standards. Together with the introduction of global liquidity standards, the new capital standards deliver on the core of the global financial reform agenda, and will be presented to the Seoul G20 Leaders Summit in November.

The implementation of Basel III will considerably increase the quality of banks' capital and significantly raise the required level of their capital. In addition, it will provide a "macroprudential overlay" to better deal with systemic risk. Lastly, the new package will allow sufficient time for a smooth transition to the new regime.

Annex: Strengthened capital framework: from Basel II to Basel III (PDF, 1 page, 20 kb)