Prescription vs. principles

Over the past decade, the shift of supervisory practice from prescription towards a principles-based approach has been dramatic. This was a valuable and necessary change, but it has also greatly complicated retaining qualified supervisory staff, argues David Rowe

Today, we frequently hear complaints about the Basel II rules being too prescriptive. In that context, it is worth remembering how far we have come in just over a decade. I have long felt that April 1995 should be recognised as a historic point in the evolution of financial sector regulation. It was in that month that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published its decision to allow banks to use their internal risk models as the basis for calculating minimum regulatory capital for