Basel Norms

Basel Norms, established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, are international regulatory standards aimed at ensuring the stability and soundness of the global banking system. These norms focus on capital adequacy, risk management, and liquidity. The key frameworks are Basel I, II, and III, which outline the minimum capital requirements banks must maintain to absorb financial shocks. Basel III, the latest iteration, also addresses liquidity risk and the leverage ratio, aiming to strengthen banks’ resilience against financial crises. The norms are designed to create a consistent global framework for banking regulation and risk management.

Basel is a city in Switzerland which is also the headquarters of Bureau of International Settlement (BIS).

• BIS fosters co-operation among central banks with a common goal of financial stability and common standards of banking regulations.
• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) established on 17 May 1930, is the world’s oldest international financial organisation. There are two representative offices in the Hong Kong and in Mexico City. In total BIS has 60 member countries from all over the world and covers approx 95% of the world GDP.

Objective

• The set of the agreement by the BCBS (BASEL COMMITTEE ON BANKING SUPERVISION), which mainly focuses on risks to banks and the financial system are called Basel accord. 
• The purpose of the accord is to ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to meet the obligations and absorb unexpected losses. 
• India has accepted Basel accords for the banking system.
• BASEL ACCORD has given us three BASEL NORMS which are BASEL 1,2 and 3.

Tier 1 – The Tier- I Capital is the core capital

Paid up Capital, Statutory Reserves, Other disclosed free reserves, Capital Reserves which represent surplus arising out of the sale proceeds of the assets, other intangible assets belong from the category of Tier1 capital.

Tier 2 – Tier-II capital can be said to be subordinate capitals.

Undisclosed reserves, Revaluation Reserves, General Provisions and loss reserves , Hybrid debt capital instruments such as bonds, Long term unsecured loans, Debt Capital Instruments etc belong from the category of Tier 2 capital.

Risk Weighted Assets

RWA means assets with different risk profiles; it means that we all know that is much larger risk in personal loans in comparison to the housing loan, so with different types of loans the risk percentage on these loans also varies.

BASEL I

• In 1988, The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) introduced capital measurement system called Basel capital accord, also called as Basel 1.
•  It focused almost entirely on credit risk, It defined capital and structure of risk weights for banks.
• The minimum capital requirement was fixed at 8% of risk-weighted assets (RWA).
• India adopted Basel 1 guidelines in 1999.

BASEL II

In 2004, Basel II guidelines were published by BCBS, which were considered to be the refined and reformed versions of Basel I accord.
The guidelines were based on three parameters which are as follows

• Banks should maintain a minimum capital adequacy requirement of 8% of risk assets.
• Banks were needed to develop and use better risk management techniques in monitoring and managing all the three types of risks that is credit and increased disclosure requirements.
• The three types of risk are- operational risk, market risk, capital risk.
• Banks need to mandatory disclose their risk exposure, etc to the central bank.
• Basel II norms in India and overseas are yet to be fully implemented.

Basel III

• In 2010, Basel III guidelines were released. These guidelines were introduced in response to the financial crisis of 2008.
• In 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, the need for a fundamental strengthening of the Basel II framework had become apparent.
• Basel III norms aim at making most banking activities such as their trading book activities more capital-intensive.
• The guidelines aim to promote a more resilient banking system by focusing on four vital banking parameters viz. capital, leverage, funding and liquidity.
• Presently Indian banking system follows Basel II norms.
• The Reserve Bank of India has extended the timeline for full implementation of the Basel III capital regulations by a year to March 31, 2019.

Important Points Regarding Implementation of Basel III

• The government of India is scaling disinvesting their holdings in PSBs to 52 per cent. 
• The government will soon infuse Rs 6,990 crore in nine public sector banks including SBI, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Punjab National Bank (PNB) for enhancing their capital and meeting global risk norms. 
• This is the first tranche of capital infusion for which the government had allocated Rs 11,200 crore in the Budget for 2014-15. 
• The government has infused Rs 58,600 crore between 2011 to 2014 in the state-owned banks. 
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget speech had said that “to be in line with Basel-III norms there is a requirement to infuse Rs 2,40,000 crore as equity by 2018 in our banks. To meet this huge capital requirement we need to raise additional resources to fulfil this obligation. 

Basel 3 measures aim to:

1. Improve the banking sector’s ability to absorb ups and downs arising from financial and economic instability
2. Improve risk management ability and governance of banking sector
3. Strengthen banks’ transparency and disclosures

Thus we can say that Basel III guidelines are targeted at to improve the ability of banks to withstand periods of economic and financial stress as the new guidelines are more stringent than the earlier requirements for capital and liquidity in the banking sector.

What are the major changes proposed in Basel iii over earlier accords i.e. Basel i and Basel ii?

1. Better Capital Quality: One of the key elements of Basel 3 is the introduction of much stricter definition of capital.  Better quality capital means the higher loss-absorbing capacity. This in turn will mean that banks will be stronger, allowing them to better withstand periods of stress.
2. Capital Conservation Buffer: Another key feature of Basel iii is that now banks will be required to hold a capital conservation buffer of 2.5%.  The aim of asking to build conservation buffer is to ensure that banks maintain a cushion of capital that can be used to absorb losses during periods of financial and economic stress.
3. Countercyclical Buffer: This is also one of the key elements of Basel III. The countercyclical buffer has been introduced with the objective to increase capital requirements in good times and decrease the same in bad times.  The buffer will slow banking activity when it overheats and will encourage lending when times are tough i.e. in bad times. The buffer will range from 0% to 2.5%, consisting of common equity or other fully loss-absorbing capital.
4. Minimum Common Equity and Tier 1 Capital Requirements: The minimum requirement for common equity, the highest form of loss-absorbing capital, has been raised under Basel III from 2% to 4.5% of total risk-weighted assets. The overall Tier 1 capital requirement, consisting of not only common equity but also other qualifying financial instruments, will also increase from the current minimum of 4% to 6%. Although the minimum total capital requirement will remain at the current 8% level, yet the required total capital will increase to 10.5% when combined with the conservation buffer.
5. Leverage Ratio: A review of the financial crisis of 2008 has indicted that the value of many assets fell quicker than assumed from historical experience.   Thus, now Basel III rules include a leverage ratio to serve as a safety net.  A leverage ratio is the relative amount of capital to total assets (not risk-weighted).   This aims to put a cap on swelling of leverage in the banking sector on a global basis. 3% leverage ratio of Tier 1 will be tested before a mandatory leverage ratio is introduced in January 2018.
6. Liquidity Ratios: Under Basel III, a framework for liquidity risk management will be created. A new Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) are to be introduced in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFI): As part of the macro-prudential framework, systemically important banks will be expected to have loss-absorbing capability beyond the Basel III requirements. Options for implementation include capital surcharges, contingent capital and bail-in-debt

How Basel III Norms Will Affect Indian Banks?

The Basel III which is to be implemented by banks in India as per the guidelines issued by RBI from time to time will be challenging task not only for the banks but also for Government of India. It is estimated that Indian banks will be required to raise Rs 6, 00,000 crores in external capital in next nine years or so i.e. by 2020 (The estimates vary from organisation to organisation). Expansion of capital to this extent will affect the returns on the equity of these banks especially public sector banks. However, only consolation for Indian banks is the fact that historically they have maintained their core and overall capital well in excess of the regulatory minimum.