# Capital Inadequacies: The Dismal Failure of the Basel Bank Capital Standards

**CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING 
Thursday, November 17, 2011 
1:00 PM (Lunch Included)**

Featuring **Kevin Dowd**, Professor, Cass Business School, City University, London; moderated by **Mark Calabria**, Director, Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute.

Senate Banking Committee Hearing Room, Dirksen 538

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[Download a Podcast of the Event (MP3)](https://cdn.cato.org/archive-2011/hba-11-17-11.mp3)Cato scholar Kevin Dowd will present his recent paper, "[Capital Inadequacies: the Dismal Failure of the Basel Regime of Bank Capital Regulation](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13490)." The Basel regime is an international system of capital adequacy regulation designed to strengthen banks' safety and soundness. "Capital Inadequacies" provides an assessment of the Basel regime and a focus on its most ambitious feature: the principle of "risk-based regulation." Professor Dowd demonstrates how the Basel system provides a textbook example of the dangers of regulatory empire building and regulatory capture, and the underlying problem it addresses — how to strengthen the banking system — can only be solved by restoring appropriate incentives for those involved. Professor Dowd is also the co-author of *Alchemists of Loss: How Modern Finance and Government Intervention Crashed the Financial System*.

Online registration for this event is closed. If you are interested in attending the event, please email <events@cato.org>. Video will be available at <https://www.cato.org/events/archive.html>.

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