After Basel, the Banks Are Not Safer

The Americans wanted tough rules, fast. The Germans pushed back. The British, Swiss, Japanese, and French joined the fray.

It's rare that international regulatory talks command such attention, let alone passion. Yet for once global bank reform is center stage. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, made up of bank supervisors and central bankers from 27 countries, has struggled in the Swiss offices of the Bank for International Settlements to construct new rules of the road for a global banking industry that is just staggering out of the wreckage of the 2008 crisis. The rules they have devised could prevent another crisis or unwittingly set the stage for one.