Not many headlines were generated on November 30 when the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision, which oversees the Basel Committee, called time on any more fundamental changes to the Basel framework. Following a decade of tough reforms, which have yet to be fully implemented, this should come as a relief to bankers, though not a surprise.
Despite this welcome news, bankers still face a heavy workload in terms of bringing in new regulations. Not only do the Basel reforms have to be fully implemented at a national level, but a raft of new measures is in the pipeline. These relate to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, the fragmentation of the European regulatory landscape following Brexit, the EU’s own regulatory review, and the regulatory priorities of the new administration of incoming US president Joe Biden, which are very different to those of outgoing president Donald Trump.
