Consolidated supervision of banks' international activities

In the light of the rapid increase over the past twenty years in the internationalisation of many banks' operations, it should be a basic principle of banking supervision that the authorities responsible for carrying it out cannot be fully satisfied about the soundness of individual banks unless they are in a position to examine the totality of each bank's business worldwide. At the same time the Basle Committee recognises that supervisors will also need to continue to look at banks' accounts on a non-consolidated basis.