Yesterday, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published its Compilation of Capital Disclosure Requirements (“Disclosure Rules”) setting forth a uniform scheme for Basel II banks to disclose the composition of their regulatory capital. These rules are intended to be implemented by national supervisors by June 30, 2013, and affected banks will be expected to comply with all but one of the new requirements for any balance sheet financial statements published after that date. One fully phased-in requirement, a “common disclosure template,” becomes effective on and after January 1, 2018.

In announcing these rules, the Basel Committee noted that the financial crisis revealed the difficulties that market participants and national supervisors had in their efforts to undertake detailed assessments of banks’ capital positions and make cross-jurisdictional comparisons, as a result of “insufficiently detailed disclosure” by banks and a lack of consistency in reporting between banks and across jurisdictions. The Disclosure Rules are intended to address these perceived disclosure deficiencies, and promote uniform and meaningful capital disclosures within and across national jurisdictions.