Author(s): Rym Ayadi
In: Financial Markets, CEPS Policy Briefs
Date: 01 February 2006

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After seven long years of difficult negotiations, the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) finally got through the European Parliament in September 2005, and was formally approved by the Council of Ministers in October. This new legislation transposes the complex, risk-sensitive Basel II framework designed by the Basel Committee into EU law which will apply to all credit institutions and investment firms operating in the 25 member states from January 2007 onwards for the simple approach and from January 2008, for the more advanced approach to measuring credit and operational risks. In this new Policy Brief, CEPS Research Fellow Rym Ayadi cautions that several issues that will determine the successful implementation of the CRD are still on hold and need to be looked at carefully. Among the issues she analyses are the future of comitology in the Directive, the impact of the new results of the fifth quantitative impact study for European institutions, the impact of the uneven implementation dates in the EU and the US, and the pure European issues that were extensively addressed but only partially resolved.