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Purpose – To discuss, from the perspective of developing countries, recent proposals for reforming international standards for bank capital requirements.

Methodology/approach – After evaluating, from the viewpoint of developing countries, the effectiveness of capital requirements reforms and progress in implementing existing regulatory accords, the chapter discusses the procyclical effects of Basel regimes, and suggests a reform proposal.

Findings – Minimum bank capital requirements proposals in developing countries should be complemented by the adoption of an incremental, size-based leverage ratio.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter contributes to enlarge the academic and policy debate related to bank capital regulation, with a particular focus on the situation of developing countries.

The new Basel Accord (known as Basel II) attempts to introduce more risk-sensitive capital requirements. We propose a multiperiod deposit insurance pricing model that incorporates specific regulatory capital requirements and the possibility of capital forbearance and moral hazard. We estimate the cost of deposit insurance under alternative regulation regimes based on the building block approach of the 1988 Basel Accord (known as Basel I) and internal model-based (IMB) capital regulation. In contrast to the building block of Basel I, Basel II's IMB capital regulation links more closely the capital requirement to a bank's actual risk. We develop a multiperiod pricing model while incorporating the effects of capital forbearance and moral hazard. The fairly-priced premium rates are computed by assuming that a bank's asset value follows a GARCH process. In contrast to previous studies based on the building block capital standard, we find that forbearance and the potential moral hazard behavior will not increase the cost of deposit insurance in the scheme of Basel II's IMB capital regulation.

The 1988 Basel Accord and the proposed revisions to the Accord represent some of the most significant international regulations impacting the financial decisions of firms, in this case, financial services firms, in recent years. The revisions to the Accord incorporate operational risk into the capital, supervisory and market requirements. In our review of the issues in this area, we provide insight into the workings of an important international regulation. We also present suggestions for further research in this area that will become feasible when data on the impact of the new regulations become available after the proposed implementation in 2006.

The recent 2008–2009 financial crisis has led international financial authorities to review the existing regulation; the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has been thus induced to review the pillars of the Basel Accord (Basel II) in order to strengthen the risk coverage of capital framework (Basel 2.5 and III). These reforms will help to raise capital requirements for the trading book, which represents a major source of losses for internationally financial institutions, especially during crisis periods. In particular, the Committee has introduced a Stressed Value-at-Risk (SVaR) capital requirement, as a new methodology to evaluate market risk.

This chapter aims to shed some lights on the issues major banks have to face when calculating SVaR in the context of emerging markets, pointing out the differences in adopting an estimation model with respect to another one. Our results show a considerable increase in capital requirements especially when new rules are applied to financial markets with high-risk parameters, such as emerging markets are. The increased cost due to higher capital requirements could be a disincentive to investment in markets with higher risk profiles than the developed markets, taking also into account that diversification benefits deriving from investing in emerging economies have shown a decrease over time. The reduction of institutional investors can thus represent a brake on the process of innovation and evolution of emerging markets.

With this chapter, the authors reveal the content of the concept of economic capital, explore approaches to its evaluation, assess the implementation of the concept of economic capital in the national banking system, and identify problems and possible directions for development and convergence of the Russian approach with international requirements. As a result, the need to apply the model of economic capital in assessing bank capital is substantiated. A concept (from Latin “conception” – understanding a system) is a specific way of understanding (interpreting) an object, phenomenon, or process; that is, the main point of view on the subject and the guiding idea for its systematic coverage. This term is also used to refer to a leading idea and a constructive principle in scientific activity.

Initially, since 1988, under prudential supervision – a direct, quantitative-oriented approach, there existed a concept of regulatory capital, reflected in the document “International Convergence of Measurement Methods and Capital Standards” (Basel I). Regulatory capital was calculated to meet regulatory oversight standards. It was intended to cover unforeseen losses and reserves already identified; thereafter, expected losses were created.

The concept of regulatory capital proceeds from the premise that if capital must cover unexpected losses, it should be borne in mind that a surprise approximates uncertainty. Consequently, the theoretical possibility of occurrence of certain events is excluded and, hence, the methodical and practical ground of the concept of economic capital disappears, which is based on the assessment of default probability and the magnitude of its negative consequences for creditors.

The change in trends in banking regulation (the actions of supervisory authorities in matters of capital adequacy acquired a risk-oriented nature that takes into account the risks assumed by each bank and the quality of their management) led to the emergence of the concept of economic capital in 2004, which is reflected in the document “International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Standards of Capital: New Approaches” (Basel II).

According to this concept, commercial banks must have sufficient capital to cover not only credit and market, but also the operational risks. Thus, economic capital takes into account all the risky circumstances that a banking institution may encounter. The need to apply the method of economic capital in assessing the capital of a bank is justified and significant.

Probability of Default (PD) is a crucial credit risk parameter. International accords have motivated banks and credit institutions to adopt objective systems of evaluating and monitoring the PD. This study examines retail unsecured loans of a major Greek bank during the period of the financial crisis. It focusses on the stochastic behaviour of the financial states of the loans. It is tested whether a first-order Markov chain (MC) model describes sufficiently the transitions from one state to another. Moreover, Poisson regression models are estimated in order to calculate the limiting transition matrix, the limiting state probabilities and the PD. It is proved that the MC of the financial states of loans is non-homogeneous suggesting that the transition probabilities from one financial state to another are not constant across time. From the Poisson regression models, the transition probability matrix is estimated from one state to another in alternative time periods. From the limiting transition matrix, it is shown that if a loan is delayed then it is very likely to move towards the next worst case. The findings of this research could be useful for bank management.