'Post-crisis financial regulations and their implications', of the UNCTAD Multi-Year Expert Meeting on Services, Development and Trade: the Regulatory and Institutional Dimension Geneva 23–24 February 2012

Andrew Cornford, Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva.

In October 2011 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision revised the rules on the capital requirements for banks’ exposures to trade finance under Basel III. This revision was a response to a long campaign of representations from the trade-finance industry and to a request of the G20. These representations acquired a more urgent profile after the sharp decline in international trade following the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007 owing to indications that a contraction in the availability of trade finance and increases in the cost of such finance had made a significant contribution to this decline, and that the more unfavourable conditions for trade finance were due partly to the impact on its availability and cost of Basel II, Basel III’s predecessor.