Basel I is the first of the Basel Accords, which are a series of international banking standards agreed upon by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The purpose of these accords is to ensure that banks have enough capital to cover their risks.
Basel I sets out the minimum capital requirements that banks must maintain in order to manage their credit risk. It also establishes guidelines for calculating a bank’s risk exposure and setting aside adequate levels of capital to cover that exposure.
The original Basel I Accord was published in 1988 and went into effect in 1989. It was later revised in 1996 (known as Basel IA) and 2004 (known as Basel II).