Crypto Basel Standard Deferred for One Year

At its recent meeting, members of the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, agreed to defer implementation of the Basel Committee’s prudential Standard for cryptoasset exposures by one year.

The Standard was endorsed by the GHOS in December 2022, but the deferral is aimed at ensuring all members are able to implement the Standard in a timely and consistent manner. The GHOS reiterates that the Standard “provides a robust and prudent global regulatory framework for internationally active banks’ exposures to cryptoassets which preserves financial stability while promoting responsible innovation”.

The Standard could still be adjusted, the GHOS says as part of its ongoing monitoring, the Basel Committee will meet later this year to discuss whether to make any revisions ahead of its implementation.

At the same meeting, the GHOS reviewed the implementation status of the outstanding Basel III reforms, which were finalised in 2017. It says members have continued to make good progress with implementation, with around two thirds of jurisdictions likely to have implemented all, or the majority, of the Standards by this year, with the remaining jurisdictions planning on doing so by next year.

GHOS members unanimously reaffirmed their expectation of implementing all aspects of the Basel III framework in full, consistently and as soon as possible. “The series of shocks to financial markets over the past few years have once again highlighted the importance of having a prudent global regulatory framework in place,” it states.