Hohl moves to BIS to promote Basel in Asia

Stefan Hohl, the Bundesbank’s head of internal risk management, has moved to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to promote the new Basel Capital Accord in Asia.

Hohl, whose official role will be that of senior economist, said he will work closely with the Financial Stability Institute, a joint initiative between the BIS and the Basel Committee, to focus on the implementation of the new capital Accord - Basel II. The Basel Committee, the de-facto regulator for international banks, is seeking to use the new Accord to enhance risk management at banks and aims to have new rules in place by 2005.

Asian banks have raised concerns that initial Basel II proposals could have an overall negative impact on the amount of capital they have to put aside for regulatory requirements, therefore impacting their economic efficiency.

Hohl worked for Deutsche Bundesbank for more than five years. He was a member of its model task force for the Basel Committee and was partly responsible for developing the internal-ratings-based approach to measuring credit risk. He will initially be based at the BIS’s head office in Switzerland, but intends to move permanently to Hong Kong in “two or three months' time".