BASEL II: THE REVISED FRAMEWORK OF JUNE 2004

A major aim of Basel II has been to revise the rules of the 1988 Basel Capital Accord in such a way as to align banks´ regulatory capital more closely with their risks, taking account of progress in the measurement and management of risk and of the opportunities which these provide for strengthened supervision. Achievement of this aim has involved the incorporation in Basel II of methods for quantifying banking risks introduced since the late 1980s. The task of the designers of Basel II has been complicated by the way in which the BCBS´s rules for banks´ capital, originally intended for the internationally active banks of its member countries, have become a global standard widely applied in developing as well as developed countries. Acceptance of this role by the BCBS has entailed a global consultation process, whose results have been reflected in three consultative papers and the RF, and the different approaches and options for setting numerical capital requirements which are intended to accommodate banks and supervisors of different levels of sophistication. As well as providing a commentary on the main features of the RF this paper documents the response of the BCBS to some of the more important points which were raised during this consultation process, including the outcome of decisions taken at a meeting in Madrid in October 2003 following comments on the consultative paper of April 2003, and summarises the results of the most recent of the BCBS´s initiatives to estimate the quantitative impact of the Basel II rules on banks´ capital. This discussion includes a review of papers issued by the BCBS as part of the last stage of its work preceding the RF.

Letter: Ruth Schroeder to Mary Lou, re: picture printouts, with attachments

Letter: Ruth Schroeder to Mary Lou, re: picture printouts, with attachments: Photocopy of Profile 6/1969 issue, pg. 18, Photo printout of BCBS Coral Gables office employees, Photo printouts of BCBS employees at an unknown company event, Photocopies of photos of various BCBS executives, including Paul Mitalas, Jerry Potter, Norman Tuck, Gary Karasick, Jerry Vaughn, Imogene Cunningham, Ted Hedrick, Jackie McKenzie, and Jay Kapur, Photocopy of articles from Profile 11/1977 and 9/1978 issues, and List of various former South Florida BCBS employees

Medicare Advantage 2010 Data Spotlight: Plan Enrollment Patterns and Trends

Provides data on nationwide enrollment trends in Medicare Advantage plans by plan type, area, region, and firm or affiliate. Also examines trends in enrollment in group and special needs plans, market concentration, and premiums

A critique on the proposed use of external sovereign credit ratings in Basel II

This paper deals with the proposed use of sovereign credit ratings in the "Basel Accord on Capital Adequacy" (Basel II) and considers its potential effect on emerging markets financing. It investigates in a first attempt the consequences of the planned revisions on the two central aspects of international bank credit flows: the impact on capital costs and the volatility of credit supply across the risk spectrum of borrowers. The empirical findings cast doubt on the usefulness of credit ratings in determining commercial banks' capital adequacy ratios since the standardized approach to credit risk would lead to more divergence rather than convergence between investment-grade and speculative-grade borrowers. This conclusion is based on the lateness and cyclical determination of credit rating agencies' sovereign risk assessments and the continuing incentives for short-term rather than long-term interbank lending ingrained in the proposed Basel II framework

Medicare Advantage Plan Star Ratings and Bonus Payments in 2012

Estimates total Medicare spending on and distribution of quality ratings-based bonus payments for Medicare Advantage plans in 2012 by company, tax status, state and county and in relation to cuts in plan payments under federal health reform

Revising SA-CCR

From SA-CCR to RSA-CCR: making SA-CCR self-consistent and appropriately risk-sensitive by cashflow decomposition in a 3-Factor Gaussian Market ModelComment: 20 pages, 13 table

Promising Payment Reform: Risk-Sharing With Accountable Care Organizations

Describes the implementation of shared payer-provider risk payment models at eight private accountable care organizations. Analyzes challenges for providers, purchasers, and payers, including securing the infrastructure for successful risk management

Should the advanced measurement approach be replaced with the standardized measurement approach for operational risk?

Recently, Basel Committee for Banking Supervision proposed to replace all approaches, including Advanced Measurement Approach (AMA), for operational risk capital with a simple formula referred to as the Standardised Measurement Approach (SMA). This paper discusses and studies the weaknesses and pitfalls of SMA such as instability, risk insensitivity, super-additivity and the implicit relationship between SMA capital model and systemic risk in the banking sector. We also discuss the issues with closely related operational risk Capital-at-Risk (OpCar) Basel Committee proposed model which is the precursor to the SMA. In conclusion, we advocate to maintain the AMA internal model framework and suggest as an alternative a number of standardization recommendations that could be considered to unify internal modelling of operational risk. The findings and views presented in this paper have been discussed with and supported by many OpRisk practitioners and academics in Australia, Europe, UK and USA, and recently at OpRisk Europe 2016 conference in London