The Basel Committee is working to reform the 1988 Capital Accord. RMA will continue to work with the Basel Committee by providing industry input as to how the proposals impact bank capital and overall operations. Check this site often for the most current RMA research.
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To date, RMA has provided the Basel Committee with a significant body of research outlining the economic capital allocation process. Papers are listed below in reverse chronological order.
- RMA Standardized NPR Response (PDF) October 2008
- Downturn LGDs for Basel II (PDF) September 2005
- Response to the Proposed U.S. Supervisory Guidance for Retail Credit Risk Capital under the Basel II Framework (PDF) January 2005
This paper represents the response of the RMA Capital Working Group to the October 27, 2004 interagency notice regarding Internal Ratings-Based Systems for Retail Credit Risk for Regulatory Capital (referred to as the Retail Guidance or RG). The paper is intended to represent a fairly complete list of Group concerns regarding implementation issues as well as other, more policy-oriented, issues.
- RMA's Response to the BIS January 31, 2003 New Release proposing changes to the treatment of certain securitizations. (PDF) March, 2004
RMA's Capital Working Group proposed a framework for implementing a flexible, risk-based treatment of capital for credit cards. The proposal was put forth following a meeting on February 10, 2004 with US regulatory agencies. In addition to the proposed framework, RMA also conducted a survey of industry practices in estimating Exposure at Default (EAD) and Loss Given Default (LGD) for revolving consumer credits (credit cards and hole equity lines of credit).
- RMA Capital Working Group: Response to the January 2004 Changes to the Basel Securitization Framework (PDF) March 2004
- Memo to regulators regarding card framework FINAL. (PDF) March 12, 2004
- RMA EAD and LGD Survey Paper FINAL. (PDF) March, 2004
- Response to the October 11, 2003 Basel Treatment of EL and UL December 31, 2003
This paper represents the response of the RMA Capital Working Group to the Basel compromise regarding the treatment of expected losses (EL), unexpected losses (UL), and the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL). The Basel compromise was summarized within the October 11, 2003 Basel release titled "Proposed Treatment of Expected and Unexpected Losses."
- RMA's response to the US Inter-Agency Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking and the Draft Supervisory Guidance Regarding AIRB Systems for Corporate Credit. (PDF) November 2003
- RMA Working Group on Operational Risk Regulation Comment Letter on the ANPR and DSG on Operational Risk Regulatory Capital. (PDF) November 2003
- RMA's response to the Basel Committee's Third Consultative Paper (CP3) on the New Capital Accord (PDF) July 2003
- Measuring Credit Risk and Economic Capital in Specialized Lending Activities—Best Practices (PDF) March 2003
This paper provides a response to the proposed regulatory capital treatment of specialized lending (SL) activities within the Basel Quantitative Impact Survey (QIS 3) dated October 1, 2002. In addition, this paper provides a survey of best practices for measuring the risk of SL activities at 10 of the 17 RMA Capital Working Group banks—a group of the largest institutions in the U.S. and Canada.
- Retail Credit Economic Capital Estimation—Best Practices (PDF) February 26, 2003
This paper reflects the RMA Capital Working Group's latest research which was provided to the Basel Committee as an examination of best-practices in economic capital estimation processes for retail products.
- Response to Basel’s Proposal for Allocating Capital to Securitzations (PDF) May 3, 2002
This paper communicates RMA’s concerns over the developing Basel proposals for assigning regulatory capital to various securitization activities of banks.
- Washington Mutual Mortgage Risk Study (PDF) March 13, 2002
The above paper reviews and analytically evaluates each of the major processes used by industry participants to measure credit risk for first mortgage products. Included in the study are discussions of economic capital, credit risk models, and several empirical experiments in which large historical databases are used to estimate the credit risk models.
- Working Paper on the IRB Treatment of Expected Losses and Future Margin Income (PDF) December 7, 2001
- RMA's Final Response to the Basel Committee (PDF) May 31, 2001
- Supervisory Accreditation Procedures for a Risk-Characteristic-Based Regulatory Capital Framework (PDF) December 2000
This paper focuses on the set of accreditation procedures that will be used by supervisors in each of the G-10 countries to determine whether a bank may participate in a risk-bucket-based Accord. It provides comment on a recent paper by William Treacy of the Federal Reserve staff that suggests possible accreditation procedures. Going further, it suggests a range of possible advanced-practices that might be considered by supervisors when establishing the procedures for accreditation.
- Credit Risk Capital for Retail Credit Products: A Survey of Sound Practices (PDF) December 8, 2000
This paper represents RMA's response to informal requests by the U.S. banking agencies for information regarding an appropriate regulatory capital treatment of retail credit products. In this paper, RMA provides internal economic capital allocations, bucketed by important risk characteristics—esti