Why the FRTB remains critical

Critics of the Basel Committee’s Fundamental Review of the Trading Book are wrong, write John Beckwith and Sanjay Sharma

Golden key: if the FRTB is not implemented, global markets and banking systems will be prone to systemic shocks

As the world approaches the tenth anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse and the ensuing global financial crisis, memories are fading along with the lessons learnt – and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)’s Fundamental Review of the Trading Book is facing headwinds from many in the industry.

There are two principal arguments for resisting the finalisation and adoption of the FRTB. The first is that regulators and industry have already done enough to mitigate systemic risk, and