Articles

  • Basel Operational Risk Amendment: The Business Indicator Fix

    On 23 March 2026 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision finalised a technical amendment to the standardised approach to operational risk, and paired it with a new answer to a market risk frequently asked question. Both changes work at the definitional level, touching the plumbing beneath the numbers: how a single accounting line maps into…

  • Synthetic Risk Transfers: BCBS Maps Capital-Relief Gaps

    On 17 February 2026 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published Synthetic risk transfers, a 31-page report on a market that has become an important source of capital relief for corporate credit risk. Across Canada, the euro area, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Committee estimates that about EUR 750 billion of assets…

  • BCBS Third-Party Risk Principles: DORA and Outsourcing Rules

    On 10 December 2025 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published its Principles for the sound management of third-party risk, a 22-page Guidelines publication setting out 12 principles for how banks and their supervisors handle the providers now sitting inside almost every banking process. For the banking sector it supersedes the 2005 Joint Forum paper…

  • Uncleared Margin Requirements: What the 2025 BCBS-IOSCO Review Found

    On 12 December 2025 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions published a joint review of how the uncleared margin requirements framework has been implemented, and the headline for reporting and collateral teams is that nothing in the rulebook moves. The review found no material issues with the framework…

  • Basel III Monitoring June 2025: Where the Capital Impact Sits

    On 24 March 2026 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published its Basel III monitoring exercise as of 30 June 2025, and the single number a capital planning team should read first is 1.7%. That is how much the fully phased-in final Basel III framework would add to the Tier 1 minimum required capital of…

  • Hong Kong-Slovenia Double Tax Agreement: Lower Withholding

    Hong Kong signed a double taxation agreement with Slovenia on 4 September 2026. The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, signed for Hong Kong; Slovenia’s Ambassador to China signed for the other side. The Hong Kong-Slovenia double taxation agreement is the 60th tax treaty in Hong Kong’s network and the fifth the…

  • BCBS 239 Risk Data Aggregation: Inside the 2026 Newsletter

    On 6 January 2026 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published a newsletter on the implementation of the Principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting, the 2013 standard known as BCBS 239. For anyone running a BCBS 239 risk data aggregation and risk reporting programme, it sets no new template and no fresh…

  • FATF on Hawala and Underground Banking: AML Red Flags

    On 3 September 2026 the Financial Action Task Force published Investigating Professional Money Laundering, Underground Banking, and the Use of Hawala and Other Similar Service Providers, and one case study, Operation Klaver in the Netherlands, records approximately EUR 500 million in criminal proceeds processed over eight months through a cash-based informal value-transfer system. The report…

  • EET 2.0: Czech Electronic Sales Records Planned for 2027

    From 2 September 2026 the Czech Ministry of Finance and the Financial Administration run a single official website, eet.gov.cz, together with a dedicated helpline on 953 109 109, for a tax obligation Czech businesses last carried before the pandemic: recording in-person sales electronically. The reintroduced system, branded EET 2.0 (elektronicka evidence trzeb, electronic registration of…