Japan is seriously discussing nationalising the banks so as to break out of its current trap, in which the attempt to maintain Basle standards of capital adequacy while bank equity falls prevents the needed expansion of credit.
Far from encouraging the use of subordinated debt, the Basle standards actually discriminate against it.
He failed to score in the semi-final, when Austria were thrashed 6-1 in Basle, but came into his own in the final at Berne.
At Shalke 04's (also sponsored by Gazprom) match against Basle, a giant Greenpeace banner was lowered from the roof of the stand, stating 'Gazprom: Don't foul the Arctic'.
The latest revision has been sent out for final consultation, and is due to come into force in 2004.The trouble with the Basle rules is that the weightings are crude, even misleading (for example, South Korea and Mexico are ranked with all other OECD countries for credit riskiness), which sometimes produces perverse effects.
But the Basle process also confers benefits in the shape of the constant exchange of information between bank regulators, which the capital markets miss out on, and for which they have tried to find substitutes.
That throws differences in regulatory structure into much sharper relief.The regulators have responded in several different ways, most directly by drawing up the Basle rules on minimum standards of capital adequacy.
However, in most emerging countries banks' capital levels are much the same as those in America and the European Union, despite the riskier environment.Many regulators still think of the capital level agreed in Basle as a final destination rather than a bare minimum; once they have checked that banks meet it, they sit back and relax.
Paul Sacher was born into a humble household in Basle, the son of a gardener and of a farmer's daughter, but married exceedingly well in 1934.
A number of dealers in Basle now feel the market is over-heated and that some of the prices being asked verge on the insane.
One approach is to use the Basle international accords on bank capital; another is to limit the scope of bank activities; a third might be to break the big banks up to ensure thay are not too big to fail.
