US regulators confirm that September 5 is the date for a key board meeting that is expected to approve final proposals for implementing the controversial Basel II bank safety plans in the US. The expected approval, which would give the green light to a four-month period of public comment on the plans, will come ahead of congressional hearings on Basel II scheduled for September 14.
September 5 has been pencilled in for some weeks as a possible date for the five-person board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the federal agency that insures customer deposits at US banks, to put the seal of approval on the delayed and revised plans. The plans are in the form of a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPR. Formal notice of the board meeting is expected to be issued later today to provide the seven-day notice required by US “government-in-the-sunshine” laws.
The FDIC board includes the heads of two other key federal agencies in the Basel-II decision-making process, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, and Office of Thrift Supervision director John Reich.
An FDIC spokesman declined to comment on whether the final NPR would raise for discussion the question of allowing the handful of big US banks that will be adopting the complex Basel II capital adequacy rules to have the option of using simpler approaches to measuring their credit and operational risks. In recent weeks some big banks, as well as industry bodies and state regulators, have asked the federal regulators to consider allowing US banks implementing Basel II the use of simpler options.