Landmark development - Basel II (1999-present)

Eight years on from the initial consultation document in 1999, the Basel II capital adequacy rules are finally coming into force. A number of banks have already gone live with the standardised and foundation internal ratings-based approaches, while many have begun parallel runs of internal models, ready for implementation of the advanced internal ratings-based (IRB) approach from January 2008. US banks will follow a year later.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision had three objectives when