Climate, crypto and updates to core principles: BCBS focus areas for 2023
Following the publication of its Work Programme and Strategic Priorities for 2023/24 in December 2022, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision met earlier this month and confirmed three key work initiatives for 2023.
Building on commitments made in its work programme, the BCBS plans to:
- Publish a consultation paper on a Pillar 3 disclosure framework for climate-related financial risks by the end of 2023.
- Consult on changes to its Core Principles for effective banking supervision by mid-2023 (the last update was in September 2012) – outsourcing, and the links between banks and non-bank financial intermediation, are expected to be the subject of additional supervisory principles and guidance respectively.
- Carry out targeted reviews of the prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures, with a partiuclar focus on the treatment of permissionless blockchains and the eligibility criteria for Group 1 stablecoins.
- Continue to monitor banks’ cryptoasset activities and exposures (the information gathered from the monitoring exercise and the targeted reviews is expected to feed into the report that BCBS plans to publish in 2023/2024 on the banking and supervisory impacts of the ongoing digitalisation of finance).
Trilogue negotiations on the final aspects of Basel III (further changes to the capital requirements directive and capital requirements regulation) will continue in April 2023, following the conclusion of the first round of trilogues on 9 March 2023. The ‘output floor’ proposals continue to be a key sticking point in the negotiations, which are taking place against a backdrop of concerns expressed by the ECB and EBA that the scale of deviations from the Basel III framework proposed by the EU Council and the European Parliament could adversely impact the reputation, competitiveness and funding costs of the EU banking sector. We’ll continue to publish insights as the trilogues progress.
“Committee members unanimously reaffirmed their expectation of implementing all aspects of the Basel III framework in a full and consistent manner, and as soon as possible, in order to further enhance the resilience of the global banking system and provide a regulatory level playing field for internationally active banks”