Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

22-May-2012 19:31 IST

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that they have formulated an action plan to adopt the Basel III norms and have issued final guidelines on Basel III Capital Regulations to all scheduled commercial banks on May 2, 2012 which is available at RBI website www.rbi.org.in. RBI further informed that draft guidelines on Basel III – Liquidity Regulations have been issued on 21.02.2012 for public comments.

Basel III – Capital Regulations will be implemented from 01.01.2013 in a phased manner. In order to allow banks to prepare and plan themselves and also to minimize any unintended consequences arising out of higher capital requirements, banks have been given a long phase-in period during which the Basel III guidelines would be implemented. Capital ratios and deductions from Common Equity will be fully phased-in and implemented as on March 31, 2018. Thus, the Basel III norms will be made fully applicable with effect from March 31, 2018.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

DSM/Hb

Basel III capital regulations: phased implementation to strengthen bank capital adequacy, concluding with full applicability by the final phase. Adoption of Basel III Capital Regulations requires scheduled commercial banks to implement strengthened capital standards through a staged phase-in. The guidelines mandate progressive recognition of capital components and specified deductions from Common Equity, with capital ratios and Common Equity deductions to be fully phased-in and implemented by the final compliance date specified by the regulator.