It is also clear that there will be a significant number of voluntary adopters of Basel II in the United States. Indeed, I believe that the majority of internationally active U.S. banks will be operating under Basel II soon after the initial implementation date, whether or not they are part of the mandatory set.
If, as we expect, about twenty U.S. banks adopt the Basel II approaches at the outset, they will account for approximately two-thirds of all U.S. banking assets. In addition, those U.S. banks account for about 99 percent of all foreign assets held by the top fifty domestic U.S. banking organizations, with the ten mandatory banks themselves accounting for about 95 percent.