Basel ii Accord Sections 743 to 760

4. Monitoring and reporting
 
743. The bank should establish an adequate system for monitoring and reporting risk
exposures and assessing how the bank’s changing risk profile affects the need for capital.
 
The bank’s senior management or board of directors should, on a regular basis, receive
reports on the bank’s risk profile and capital needs. These reports should allow senior
management to:
 
Evaluate the level and trend of material risks and their effect on capital levels;
 
Evaluate the sensitivity and reasonableness of key assumptions used in the capital
assessment measurement system;
 
Determine that the bank holds sufficient capital against the various risks and is in
compliance with established capital adequacy goals; and
 
Assess its future capital requirements based on the bank’s reported risk profile and
make necessary adjustments to the bank’s strategic plan accordingly.
 
5. Internal control review
 
744. The bank’s internal control structure is essential to the capital assessment process.
Effective control of the capital assessment process includes an independent review and,
where appropriate, the involvement of internal or external audits.
 
The bank’s board of directors has a responsibility to ensure that management establishes a system for assessing the various risks, develops a system to relate risk to the bank’s capital level, and establishes a method for monitoring compliance with internal policies.
 
The board should regularly verify whether its system of internal controls is adequate to ensure well-ordered and prudent conduct of business.
 
745. The bank should conduct periodic reviews of its risk management process to ensure
its integrity, accuracy, and reasonableness. Areas that should be reviewed include:
 
Appropriateness of the bank’s capital assessment process given the nature, scope
and complexity of its activities;
 
Identification of large exposures and risk concentrations;
 
Accuracy and completeness of data inputs into the bank’s assessment process;
 
Reasonableness and validity of scenarios used in the assessment process; and
 
Stress testing and analysis of assumptions and inputs.
Principle 2: Supervisors should review and evaluate banks’ internal capital adequacy
assessments and strategies, as well as their ability to monitor and ensure their
compliance with regulatory capital ratios. Supervisors should take appropriate
supervisory action if they are not satisfied with the result of this process.
 
746. The supervisory authorities should regularly review the process by which a bank
assesses its capital adequacy, risk position, resulting capital levels, and quality of capital
held. Supervisors should also evaluate the degree to which a bank has in place a sound
internal process to assess capital adequacy.
 
The emphasis of the review should be on the quality of the bank’s risk management and controls and should not result in supervisors functioning as bank management. The periodic review can involve some combination of:
 
On-site examinations or inspections;
 
Off-site review;
 
Discussions with bank management;
 
Review of work done by external auditors (provided it is adequately focused on the
necessary capital issues); and
 
Periodic reporting.
747. The substantial impact that errors in the methodology or assumptions of formal
analyses can have on resulting capital requirements requires a detailed review by
supervisors of each bank’s internal analysis.
 
1. Review of adequacy of risk assessment
 
748. Supervisors should assess the degree to which internal targets and processes
incorporate the full range of material risks faced by the bank. Supervisors should also review
the adequacy of risk measures used in assessing internal capital adequacy and the extent to
which these risk measures are also used operationally in setting limits, evaluating business
line performance, and evaluating and controlling risks more generally. Supervisors should
consider the results of sensitivity analyses and stress tests conducted by the institution and
how these results relate to capital plans.
 
2. Assessment of capital adequacy
 
749. Supervisors should review the bank’s processes to determine that:
 
Target levels of capital chosen are comprehensive and relevant to the current
operating environment;
 
These levels are properly monitored and reviewed by senior management; and
 
The composition of capital is appropriate for the nature and scale of the bank’s
business.
 
750. Supervisors should also consider the extent to which the bank has provided for
unexpected events in setting its capital levels. This analysis should cover a wide range of
external conditions and scenarios, and the sophistication of techniques and stress tests used
should be commensurate with the bank’s activities.
 
3. Assessment of the control environment
 
751. Supervisors should consider the quality of the bank’s management information
reporting and systems, the manner in which business risks and activities are aggregated,
and management’s record in responding to emerging or changing risks.
 
752. In all instances, the capital level at an individual bank should be determined
according to the bank’s risk profile and adequacy of its risk management process and
internal controls. External factors such as business cycle effects and the macroeconomic
environment should also be considered.
 
4. Supervisory review of compliance with minimum standards
 
753. In order for certain internal methodologies, credit risk mitigation techniques and
asset securitisations to be recognised for regulatory capital purposes, banks will need to
meet a number of requirements, including risk management standards and disclosures. In
particular, banks will be required to disclose features of their internal methodologies used in
calculating minimum capital requirements. As part of the supervisory review process,
supervisors must ensure that these conditions are being met on an ongoing basis.
 
754. The Committee regards this review of minimum standards and qualifying criteria as
an integral part of the supervisory review process under Principle 2. In setting the minimum
criteria the Committee has considered current industry practice and so anticipates that these minimum standards will provide supervisors with a useful set of benchmarks that are aligned with bank management expectations for effective risk management and capital allocation.
 
755. There is also an important role for supervisory review of compliance with certain
conditions and requirements set for standardised approaches. In this context, there will be a
particular need to ensure that use of various instruments that can reduce Pillar 1 capital
requirements are utilised and understood as part of a sound, tested, and properly
documented risk management process.
 
5. Supervisory response
 
756. Having carried out the review process described above, supervisors should take
appropriate action if they are not satisfied with the results of the bank’s own risk assessment
and capital allocation. Supervisors should consider a range of actions, such as those set out
under Principles 3 and 4 below.
 
Principle 3: Supervisors should expect banks to operate above the minimum
regulatory capital ratios and should have the ability to require banks to hold capital in
excess of the minimum.
 
757. Pillar 1 capital requirements will include a buffer for uncertainties surrounding the
Pillar 1 regime that affect the banking population as a whole.
 
Bank-specific uncertainties will be treated under Pillar 2. It is anticipated that such buffers under Pillar 1 will be set to provide reasonable assurance that a bank with good internal systems and controls, a well-diversified risk profile and a business profile well covered by the Pillar 1 regime, and which operates with capital equal to Pillar 1 requirements, will meet the minimum goals for soundness embodied in Pillar 1.
 
However, supervisors will need to consider whether the particular features of the markets for which they are responsible are adequately covered. Supervisors will typically require (or encourage) banks to operate with a buffer, over and above the Pillar 1 standard.
 
Banks should maintain this buffer for a combination of the following:
 
(a) Pillar 1 minimums are anticipated to be set to achieve a level of bank
creditworthiness in markets that is below the level of creditworthiness sought by
many banks for their own reasons. For example, most international banks appear to
prefer to be highly rated by internationally recognised rating agencies. Thus, banks
are likely to choose to operate above Pillar 1 minimums for competitive reasons.
 
(b) In the normal course of business, the type and volume of activities will change, as
will the different risk exposures, causing fluctuations in the overall capital ratio.
 
(c) It may be costly for banks to raise additional capital, especially if this needs to be
done quickly or at a time when market conditions are unfavourable.
 
(d) For banks to fall below minimum regulatory capital requirements is a serious matter.
It may place banks in breach of the relevant law and/or prompt non-discretionary
corrective action on the part of supervisors.
 
(e) There may be risks, either specific to individual banks, or more generally to an
economy at large, that are not taken into account in Pillar 1.
 
758. There are several means available to supervisors for ensuring that individual banks
are operating with adequate levels of capital. Among other methods, the supervisor may set
trigger and target capital ratios or define categories above minimum ratios (e.g. well
capitalised and adequately capitalised) for identifying the capitalisation level of the bank.
 
Principle 4: Supervisors should seek to intervene at an early stage to prevent capital
from falling below the minimum levels required to support the risk characteristics of a
particular bank and should require rapid remedial action if capital is not maintained or
restored.
 
759. Supervisors should consider a range of options if they become concerned that a
bank is not meeting the requirements embodied in the supervisory principles outlined above.
 
These actions may include intensifying the monitoring of the bank, restricting the payment of dividends, requiring the bank to prepare and implement a satisfactory capital adequacy
restoration plan, and requiring the bank to raise additional capital immediately. Supervisors
should have the discretion to use the tools best suited to the circumstances of the bank and
its operating environment.
 
760. The permanent solution to banks’ difficulties is not always increased capital.
However, some of the required measures (such as improving systems and controls) may
take a period of time to implement. Therefore, increased capital might be used as an interim
measure while permanent measures to improve the bank’s position are being put in place.
Once these permanent measures have been put in place and have been seen by
supervisors to be effective, the interim increase in capital requirements can be removed.
   
 

 

 

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