Basel II


Basel II

An agreement on international banking regulations dealing with how banks handle risk. Basel II establishes risk management and risk capital requirements in an attempt to ensure banks remain solvent. Basel II consists of three pillars. The first deals with capital requirements and mandates that banks exposed to more risk (which is itself categorized and quantified) must maintain sufficient capital. The second pillar provides an outline that regulators can use to deal with non-quantifiable forms of risk. The third attempts to promote market discipline.