Financial institutions receive clear guidelines through a globally harmonised regulatory framework which sets incentives for careful bank management while being, at the same time, as simple as possible. For me, that is the essential principle of the forthcoming Basel reforms. Where do we stand today?
The Basel Committee’s all-important meeting in Santiago is just over two weeks away, and I think we’ve already made good progress; but that certainly doesn’t mean we’ve reached our destination. We still have to bring three objectives of the Basel reform package into alignment.