At the end of last year, as you know, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released its new set of prudential standards known collectively as Basel III. It was a major re-think of the existing minimum standards for international banking.
Unlike its two forerunners, this was an agreement in which Australia participated.1 One of the early responses of the international regulatory bodies to the financial crisis was to make their membership structures more representative. In the case of the Basel Committee, the membership was widened in mid 2009 to encompass 27 jurisdictions, a major expansion from the original G10 membership.