The Basel 2 Approach to Bank Operational Risk: Regulation on the Wrong Track Available to Purchase

The banking industry has adopted an approach to managing financial risk based on economic capital, the amount of capital necessary to achieve a specified level of protection against financial ruin. In the New Basel Capital Accord, regulators have recently proposed capital regulation to reduce operational risk. In this article, the author challenges the rationale for employing a capital charge to mitigate operational risk.