The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Tuesday issued its first progress report on Basel III, which indicates how far various countries are along in the implementation of the new capital adequacy regime.

The report provides a high-level view of Basel Committee members’ progress in adopting Basel II, Basel 2.5 and Basel III, as of the end of September. It focuses on the status of domestic rule-making processes to ensure that the committee’s capital standards are transformed into national law or regulation according to the internationally agreed timetable for tougher capital requirements.

The Basel committee says that it believes that disclosure will provide additional incentive for members to fully comply with the international agreements. In the future, it plans to review the consistency of members’ national rules to identify differences that could raise prudential or level playing field concerns. It will also review the measurement of risk-weighted assets in both the banking book and the trading book to ensure consistency in practice across banks and jurisdictions. Those reviews are expected to start in early 2012.

The report ranks each country’s progress on a scale from one to four, with one indicating that draft regulations have not been published; two meaning that draft regulation has been published; three meaning that a final rule has been published; and, four representing a final rule in force.

For Canada, Basel II is fully in force; Basel 2.5 rates a two, with draft guidance to be finalized this year, and applied on January 1, 2012; while Basel III adoption is rated just a one. It says that a draft regulation for Basel III is expected in May 2012 and final guidance should be delivered before the end of 2012 for implementation in the first quarter of 2013. It notes that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has issued a number of public communications concerning the implementation of Basel III.

Stefan Ingves, Basel Committee chairman and governor of Sweden’s central bank, said that “a critical first step in the Basel III implementation process is to ensure that all of our members implement the framework consistent with agreed timelines. The progress report released today reflects the Basel Committee’s strong commitment for timely, full and consistent implementation of Basel III.”