Supervision and Regulation Letters

On December 17, 2009, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the Committee) released for comment proposals that aim to strengthen the resiliency of the banking sector through new international capital and liquidity standards.¹ Following the Basel II enhancements released in July 2009, these proposals represent part of the Committee's comprehensive efforts to address the lessons of the recent financial crisis. Proposed changes include introduction of new standards for liquidity risk management, the addition of a leverage ratio to the international Basel II framework, improvements to the quality and consistency of capital, and strengthening of capital requirements for counterparty credit risk.

The Committee has requested that comments on the proposals be submitted by April 16, 2010. The Federal Reserve encourages interested institutions to review the proposals and submit comments. Banks may submit comments on any aspect of the consultative documents to baselcommittee@bis.org, or by mail to:

Secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
Bank for International Settlements
CH-4002 Basel
Switzerland

While supervised institutions are under no obligation to provide comments, if comments are submitted, institutions are encouraged to copy the Federal Reserve on any such comments at the following email address:  BaselComments-April2010@frb.gov.

Reserve Banks are asked to distribute this SR letter to the domestic and foreign banking organizations supervised by the Federal Reserve in their districts. Questions regarding this letter may be directed to Robert Motyka, Senior Project Manager, Supervisory Policy and Guidance, at (202) 452-5231; or Meg Donovan, Supervisory Financial Analyst, Risk Policy and Guidance, at (202) 872-7542.