Malaysia’s 10 anchor banks ”are catching up” despite being two to three years behind Singapore banks and nearly five years behind their European counterparts in their preparations for Basel II, a banking risk management expert said.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) regional executive director (financial risk management) Pedro Garcia said that most Malaysian banks were still in their “initial stages” to meet the stringent risk management requirements of the new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) that Bank Negara wants in place in less than four years’ time.
The central bank has set 1 January 2008 as the date when the first phase of a 2-phased approach towards meeting Basel II kicks in. That is when all banks in Malaysia would have to adopt what the Basel Committee calls its standardised approach for credit risks and basic indicator approach for operational risks.
