Basel Committee Moves to Address G-SIB “Window Dressing”
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: October 19, 2026
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has published amendments to its Globally Systemically Important Banks (G-SIB) methodology to address “window dressing” by banks around reporting periods
“Window dressing” seeks to temporarily reduce banks’ perceived systemic footprint around the reference dates used for the reporting and public disclosure of G-SIB scores. The committee has previously described the practice as “unacceptable”, noting that such behaviour “undermines the intended policy objectives of the Committee’s standards and risks disrupting the operations of financial markets”.
The amendments aim at constraining banks’ ability to lower their G-SIB scores through window-dressing by requiring banks participating in the G-SIB assessment exercise to report and disclose all stock G-SIB indicators based on an average of values over the reporting year, rather than year-end values.
To provide sufficient time for banks to develop a robust and comprehensive reporting process, the revised standard will be implemented by 1 January 2030.
In addition, the Committee has agreed to increase the G-SIB reporting and disclosure threshold from EUR 200 billion to EUR 350 billion in leverage ratio exposure measure, to be implemented from 2027.
