Banks face challenge assessing benefits of Basel II op risk approaches, says Andersen

Calculating the benefit for banks of adopting the more complex methods of arriving at an operational risk capital charge is very challenging because of uncertainties over the factors involved.

This is the view of professional services firm Andersen in comments on Basel II, the new capital adequacy accord that global banking regulators want to bring into effect for large international banks in 2004.

Andersen (formerly Arthur Andersen) says Basel II is likely to mean investment in technology for many banks because the ability to collect, store and analyse data is the key to measuring operational risk.

Basel II will require banks for the first time to reserve capital against the risk