Still, the Basle Committee is wise to hold out the promise that proper modelling is the ultimate goal.

ECONOMIST: Well-cushioned in Basle?

Which is why the second proposal from the Basle Committee is welcome.

ECONOMIST: Well-cushioned in Basle?

This week, the European Commission produced proposals that would align bank regulation in the European Union with changes in the Basle committee's rules.

ECONOMIST: It is time for a more radical approach to banking regulation

All this helps to explain why Mr McDonough was so keen, after he was appointed chairman of the Basle committee last June, to rework the accord as soon as possible.

ECONOMIST: Banking regulation

The Basle committee that considers the rules governing banks' capital ratios is now trying to rework them, mainly because it thinks too many banks have found ways to get round the existing capital rules.

ECONOMIST: The bigger they are

The proposals are based on the work of the Basle committee on banking supervision, which represents bank supervisors in the big industrial countries, and has spent several years designing a new framework to set minimum capital standards for internationally active banks.

ECONOMIST: Don��t bank on Brussels

MEPs debated a report on 6 October 2010 by the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee ahead of the Commission's formal response to the Basle agreement.

BBC: Commission warned on financial regulation laws