Basel regulation: A dangerous obsession 1

Abstract

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) standards are generally accepted by 46 countries in the world (28 jurisdictions). However, these countries differ in terms of details of standards' implementation, i.e. national discretions take place. In 2012 the Basel Committee launched Regulatory Compliance Assessment Program (RCAP) to assure that all member states operate according to rules at least not softer than the original ones. Standards' unification across countries results in need for less developed countries to adopt standards faster and in a more stringent form. One may foresee financial instability exacerbation as an outcome of such policy.

That is why paper objective is to demonstrate that standards' implementation(RCAP) score is an implicit product of country's macroeconomic and financial system development. For example, higher share of foreign banks and higher unemployment are strongly associated with countries that have regulation significantly different from the Basel original ones (having low compliance scores finally). This is exactly why standards should be differentiated by countries. Key message of the paper is that to promote financial stability regulator should target natural heterogeneity of risk management and risk regulation instead of that appealing artificial homogeneity (of which RCAP is one the examples).