In 2004, Basel II ushered in an era of technical standards that not only ran into hundreds of pages but also included numerous calculation formulas and tables. And I daren’t mention the annexes or background papers. The reforms following the financial crisis intensified this trend further still.
Basel III and the Capital Requirements Directive, or CRR, are even more detailed, heavier on formulas, and more complex. Why is there this trend towards ever more complex rules? Five reasons stand out in particular. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  First: Regulation has needed to keep pace – and still needs to keep pace –with ever more complex banking business.