German regulators begin industry dialogue

FRANKFURT - Germany's regulators are about to change the way they interact with the banking industry as they gear up to implement the operational risk portion of Basel II by 2006.

To date, Germany’s banks have had little or no guidance from their regulators on preparing their op risk management frameworks for the European implementation of Basel II. Nor has there been much dialogue with the regulators on the topic so far, say bankers.

But now, the nation’s banking regulators - the Bundesbank in Frankfurt and the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) in Bonn and Berlin - are gearing up their preparations for implementing the prospective Basel II op