Basel Committee on Banking Supervision

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, committee of the Bank for International Settlements, an institution that promotes financial and monetary cooperation among the world’s central banks. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision was created in 1974 as an ongoing forum to discuss banking supervisory matters. Member countries of the committee include Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The committee’s secretariat, consisting of supervisors from central banks and other authorities of member countries, is located in Basel, Switz.

The Basel Committee is guided by two overarching principles: no banking system should operate unsupervised, and supervision of banks must be adequate. The work of the Basel Committee is executed primarily through four subcommittees: the Accord Implementation Group, the Policy Development Group, the Accounting Task Force, and the International Liaison Group. The committee is best known for developing guidelines and standards in the areas of capital adequacy, for overseeing cross-border banking activities, and for developing the core principles of effective banking supervision.

The Basel Committee meets four times per year and reports to a joint committee consisting of central-bank governors and banking supervisory officials from the organization’s member countries. Although the Basel Committee regularly distributes guidance and information on best practices to its members, these are advisory in nature because the committee has no legal supervisory authority over any country’s banking system. Member countries are free to adopt these standards by formal statute or regulation as they deem appropriate.