Regulator hits back at Basel II critics

Much of the complexity for which the Basel II bank capital accord is criticised is the inevitable result of three highly desirable features of the pact - namely, risk sensitivity, wide applicability and the shifting of the task of risk measurement to banks from regulators.

That was the view expressed in February by Andrew Crockett, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Switzerland-based umbrella group for the world’s central banks.

The job of making Basel II simpler lay with banks themselves rather than their supervisors, he told the Bankers Club annual banquet in London.

He was speaking as parts of the timetable for bringing Basel II into effect slipped again. Many bankers believe the accord’s complexity makes 2006 a likelier