US Congressman blasts Basel II while supervisors forge ahead

Washington, DC -- A US Congressman sent waves of panic across Europe when he announced at a fringe event of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in late January that he had serious reservations about whether the US would ever adopt Basel II. The comment underscores the precarious situation of the Basel II agreement within the US, where legislators and some banking regulators continue to attempt to undermine the implementation of the accord domestically.

Richard Selby, who is chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, expressed serious reservations about whether the US would ever adopt the revised Basel framework. His comments were reported in The Independent, a UK newspaper. The remark kicked off a series of meetings between Federal Reserve officials and members of the banking committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the last days of January. According to one Federal Reserve official, the supervisor sought to stress