US SEC to begin work on Basel II rules

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon issue a set of proposals, consisting of rule amendments and new rules, to create two separate voluntary regulatory frameworks for the supervision of broker-dealers and their affiliates on a consolidated basis, according to an announcement yesterday.

According to the statement, one proposal would “establish an alternative method to compute certain net capital charges for broker-dealers that are part of a holding company that manages risks on a group-wide basis and whose holding company consents to group-wide Commission supervision.” The framework would be consistent with the Basel II capital standards, and would require computation of market and credit risk capital charges, and compliance with rules about internal risk management control