Brazil adopts Basel III rules

The BRICS Post, August 11, 2013

The accord is designed to strengthen
 the ability of banks to withstand financial
shocks [Xinhua]

Brazil is looking to strengthen the regulation, supervision and risk management of its banking sector by implementing the new Third Basel Accord (Basel III).

The Brazilian Central Bank has announced that the international regulatory standards will be adopted in its national financial system beginning October.

The new rules insist on banks to roughly triple the size of capital buffers they hold after each country finalises its own version.

G20 countries in 2010 agreed on Basel III rules to make sure banks had enough resources to withstand financial crises like in 2008.

Central bank president Alexandre Tombini said Brazilian banks will not need additional capital to fulfill the Basel III requirements.

The accord is designed to strengthen the ability of banks to withstand financial shocks.

Tombini also asserted that this will not impact the expansion of credit offer.

“The macro-prudential operations contributed to keep the good functioning of our markets in an atmosphere of expansion of international liquidity and intense capital flow,” he said.

Brazil joins its BRICS partners, India, China and South Africa who have already adopted the Basel III framework of capital adequacy rules for banks.

Russia has postponed implementing the accord till January 2014.

Basel norms are a set of international banking regulations formulated by the Basel committee on bank supervision, which set out the minimum capital requirements to sustain banks the world over.

The overseer of the accord, Bank for International Settlements, operates from Basel in Switzerland

Source: Agencies