Basel Committee adds climate risks to banking supervision standards

THE Basel Committee on Thursday approved an update of its banking supervision guidelines that includes risks from climate changes and the digitalisation of finance.

The changes to its “core principles for effective banking supervision” were approved at a meeting of some 220 central bankers and financial regulators on April 24 and 25 in Basel, Switzerland, it said in a communique.

The Basel Committee in 2022 launched a review of its banking supervision principles to reflect changes affecting the banking system since the previous update in 2012.

The Committee’s rules were considerably hardened after the 2007-2008 financial criss, but “more recent crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes of bank distress, have reinforced the importance of bank and banking system resilience to a range of different shocks, as well as the need for effective supervision,” it said in an explanatory note.

The global banking sector last year was stressed by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate and Signature in the United States, as well as by the emergency sale of Credit Suisse to its fellow Swiss rival UBS.

“Beyond financial risks, significant efforts have been directed at strengthening operational resilience to ensure that banks are better able to withstand, adapt to and recover from severe operational risk-related events, such as pandemics, cyber incidents, technology failures and natural disasters,” the committee said. AFP