Early lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic on the Basel reforms

Today the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is publishing an interim evaluation report assessing the impact of the implemented Basel reforms in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Beginning in 2009, the Committee developed a set of new regulatory standards in response to the global financial crisis of 2007-09, commonly referred to as the Basel reforms, aimed at strengthening the regulation, supervision and risk management of banks.

Following the issuance of the reforms, the Committee has determined it appropriate to evaluate the impact of those standards already implemented on the resilience and behaviour of the banking system.

The report provides a preliminary assessment of whether the reforms implemented to date have functioned as intended in light of the pandemic. It outlines the Committee's initial findings regarding:

(i) the overall resilience of the banking system during the pandemic;

(ii) the usability of capital buffers, members' experience with the countercyclical capital policies and price movements of additional tier 1 capital instruments;

(iii) liquidity buffers;

(iv) the impact of the leverage ratio on financial intermediation; and

(v) the cyclicality of specific Basel capital requirements.