Big Banks get one-year reprieve on New Basel 2 rules

Business Report - New Basel 2 rules 'take account of small businesses':

"... applying the rules worldwide was delayed. The biggest international banks will wait an extra year, until December 2007, to implement the Basel 2 accord, which regulates how much banks must keep in reserves to cushion against unexpected losses.

The delay helped the US, where regulators had warned that the rules were far too complicated to apply by the December 2006 deadline. But Europe plans to go ahead, starting a two-tier system that analysts said could undo the ambitious global reach. "

Basel 2 compliance is huge in the banking world, and many of the largest banks are scrambling to comply. Compliance all revolves around a data warehouse with all of a bank's lending exposure. Banks around the world are being pressured to comply. IBM has a good white paper on the 3 pillars of Basel II, and the metrics involved (and how their solutions can track them, of course). In the right hands this DW can provide much, much more value.