The modifications under consideration in the NPR are intended to:

• Modernize the risk-based capital rules to ensure that the capital framework remains a relevant and reliable measure of risks present in the banking system.
• Mitigate, to the extent possible, potentially material differences in capital requirements that may arise between banks that adopt Basel II and those banks that remain under the existing risk-based capital rules.
• Maintain an operationally feasible capital framework that is relatively simple to implement for banking organizations subject to the existing risk-based capital rules.

A banking organization would be able to elect to adopt the modifications or remain subject to the agencies' existing risk-based capital rules.

The NPR includes a series of questions to solicit further comment on possible alternatives to the advanced approaches set forth in the Basel II NPR for determining risk-based capital requirements for large U.S. banking organizations.