Basel committee reports "excellent progress" in drafting final deal

Oct 19, 2010, 18:17 GMT

Seoul - Banking experts and regulators of the Basel group have moved further towards nailing down a new agreement to reform the international bank and finance system, a top official said after talks Tuesday in Seoul.

Nout Wellink, chairman of the 27-nation Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, said 'excellent progress' had been made towards finalising the envisaged reform.

The aim, Wellink said, is that 'higher levels of capital, combined with a global liquidity framework and more rigorous supervision will substantially reduce the probability and severity of banking crises in the future.'

This would help to safeguard financial stability and economic growth and reduced the exposure to the public sector and taxpayers, he added.

Currently, the final reform under the so-called 'Basel III' package is to be agreed at the Group of 20 (G20) summit to take place in Seoul in November.

The next stage in the deliberations comes at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting set for October 22-23 in Gyeongiu, South Korea.

The Basel III standards are to be introduced in phases starting in 2013.

The Swiss city Basel is home to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), an intergovernmental organization of central banks aimed at shaping and coordinating monetary policy worldwide. Its work has come into sharp focus in the wake of the 2008 world financial crisis and the efforts since then to reform the system.

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