Banks gearing up to implement Basel II norms

Mumbai, Mar 13 (UNI) All banks in the country are gearing up to implement the Basel II norms which covers three aspects including credit risk, market risk and operational risk.

While some of the banks are going for it on their own by opening a separate cell for the job, few others have appointed consultants for the same. For example, the private sector bank, Unit Trust of India (UTI), and the public sector bank, Union Bank of India (UBI), have appointed 'i-Flex' as their consultants for the implementation of Basel II norms.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on Basel II, organised by Indian Bank's Association (IBA) and UK Trade and Investment here today, UTI Bank Asst Vice-President Sanjay Sinha told UNI ''We've appointed i-flex to cover aspects like credit risk and market risk.

However, it is SAS which has been appointed by us to take care of our operational risk requirements as per the Basel II norms.'' Agreeing to the fact that the confusion still persisted among bankers over the issue of operational risk, which has been added in the Basel norms for the first time, a UBI official said ''It should be looked at four parameters people risk, process risk, system risk and technology risk.'' He said his bank had opened a separate cell to tackle the issue which is named as Risk Organisation Structure and it is being headed by a GM-rank official.

Indian Bank is already under the process of finalisation of the consultant for the implementation of the project. The officials of the bank are meeting in Chennai this evening to finalise the consultant.

IBA, which has already formed a consortium of country's banks for the purpose, is busy preparing data warehousing for the operational risk part. Informing about the developments, IBA Senior Vice President G Sankaranarayanan said ''The data pooling work as undertaken by my organisation is still in its primary stage and soon we will be inviting expression of interest (EoI) for selection of proper vendor for the job'' He said 11 major banks of the country had already joined the consortium and he hoped that the remaining ones will also join it in near future.

After advising the banks to have standardised approach towards credit risk, market risk and operational risk, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has formed a 14-member steering committee to monitor the Basel II implementation. Giving more details about it, Chief GM-in charge of the central bank, Prashant Saran said ''While Ashok Gawli committee has been formed by the RBI to look into the aspect of corporate governance, guidelines have already been issued by us on the front of anti-money laundering activities.'' UNI