Basel II proposals The current Basel I capital framework, adopted nearly twenty years ago, has served us well. For the vast majority of U.S. banks, Basel I continues to provide a useful measure of regulatory capital, while not being particularly burdensome. However, Basel I has become increasingly inadequate for large, internationally active banks that are offering ever more complex and sophisticated products and services.
In other words, the current Basel I capital requirements have over the past decade begun to deviate substantially from the risk profiles of large, complex organizations. We need a better capital framework for these large, internationally active banks, and we believe that Basel II is such a framework.