Globalising Banking Standards and the Impact of Recent Global Regulatory Initiatives

The chapter examines the global reforms to bank regulation initiated by the Basel Committee for Bank Supervision (BCBS) to rectify the deficiencies in bank regulation exposed by the global financial crisis and analyses their relevance and usefulness to developing economies, focusing on those in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The major reforms, contained in Basel III, aim to both strengthen micro-prudential regulation and introduce new macroprudential regulations. Reforms to facilitate the orderly resolution of distressed cross-border banks have also been introduced. However, compared to banks in advanced economies (AEs) for which the Basel III reforms are primarily designed, banks in SSA face risks which are both larger in magnitude and, in some respects, different in nature. As such, the Basel III reforms may not be, by themselves, sufficient to ensure the soundness of banks and the overall stability of the banking system in SSA. The chapter identifies where gaps in the prudential regulatory framework of relevance to SSA remain.