Definition of capital disclosure requirements

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published proposed disclosure requirements that aim to improve the transparency and comparability of a bank's capital base. During the financial crisis, market participants and supervisors were hampered in their efforts to undertake detailed assessments of banks' capital positions and make cross jurisdictional comparisons as a result of insufficiently detailed disclosure and a lack of consistency in reporting between banks and across jurisdictions. This lack of clarity may have contributed to uncertainty during the financial crisis. In addition to improving the quality and level of required capital, Basel III will establish certain high level disclosure requirements to improve transparency of regulatory capital and enhance market discipline. These proposed disclosure requirements are set out in the Basel Committee's consultative document.

The Basel Committee welcomes comments on the proposed consultative document. Comments should be submitted by Friday 17 February 2012 by email to: baselcommittee@bis.org. Alternatively, comments may be sent by post to the Secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Bank for International Settlements, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland. All comments may be published on the Bank for International Settlements's website unless a commenter specifically requests confidential treatment.