National regulators discussing results with banks to clarify data issues: QIS5 results delayed until June, says BIS

BASEL, SWITZERLAND – The results of quantitative impact study five will be delayed until June, according to officials from the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

Originally, the results of QIS5, along with a recalibration of Basel II, were expected this spring, which many thought would be March or April. Information on QIS5 was first posted during summer 2005, and banks were expected to turn over their information by the end of December 2005.

However, the UK – one of the very first banks to begin its domestic QIS5 process – will only be ready to turn its information over to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision at the end of February, according to minutes from a meeting the Financial Services Authority held with the industry in December 2005.

A BIS source says that at the moment, most of the national regulators are reviewing the data they received at the end of 2005 and are discussing the results with banks. The source says: "I think everyone is confident that we will have much improved data quality compared with QIS3", which was conducted in 2002, with the results released in May 2003. He also indicated that the Basel Committee may release some preliminary information on the QIS5 results in late March or early April.

Overall, the Basel Committee is expected to have between 300 and 350 banks participating from 33 countries. Of these, 13 of the countries are G-10 members, and 200–250 of the banks participating are expected to be from G-10 countries. OR&C