Basel II committee: We'll stop the next crunch

The regulatory committee of Basel II said yesterday that it would boost risk management practices among banks through the development of new rules.

In particular, valuation of complex financial products would be improved by the new guidelines from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, it commented.

The changes are to be made in response to the ongoing global financial crisis - which came about in part due to concerns over the value of certain types of the asset-backed securities held by banks.

These securities have "produced the majority of losses during the recent market turbulence," the committee said in a statement.

"Supervisors cannot predict the next crisis but they can carry forward the lessons from recent events to promote a more resilient banking system that can weather shocks, whatever the source," committee chairman Nout Wellink added.

A full set of proposals for banks is to be produced by the committee later this year.