Home > Terms > English (EN) > Basel 1 and 2
Basel 1 and 2
An attempt to reduce the number of bank failures by tying a bank's capital adequacy ratio to the riskiness of the loans it makes. For instance, there is less chance of a loan to a government going bad than a loan to, say, an internet business, so the bank should not have to hold as much capital in reserve against the first loan as against the second. The first attempt to do this worldwide was by the Basel committee for international banking supervision in 1988. However, its system of judging the relative riskiness of different loans was crude. For instance, it penalized banks no more for making loans to a fly-by-night software company in Thailand than to Microsoft; no more for loans to South Korea, bailed out by the IMF in 1998, than to Switzerland. In 1998, "Basel 2" was proposed, using much more sophisticated risk classifications. However, controversy over these new classifications, and the cost to banks of administering the new approach, led to the introduction of Basel 2 being delayed until (at least) 2005.
- Part of Speech: noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Economy
- Category: Economics
- Company: The Economist
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Billy Morgan
Sports; Snowboarding
The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...
Marzieh Afkham
Broadcasting & receiving; News
Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...
Weekly Packet
Language; Online services; Slang; Internet
Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Banking; Investment banking
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...
Spartan
Online services; Internet
Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...
Featured Terms
LAX Takeoffs
An epic photo stitched together from about 75 separate photographs taken in a span of seven hours to show various planes taking off from Los Angeles ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
Browers Terms By Category
- Bread(293)
- Cookies(91)
- Pastries(81)
- Cakes(69)
Baked goods(534) Terms
- Railroad(457)
- Train parts(12)
- Trains(2)
Railways(471) Terms
- Clock(712)
- Calendar(26)
Chronometry(738) Terms
- Action toys(4)
- Skill toys(3)
- Animals & stuffed toys(2)
- Educational toys(1)
- Baby toys(1)