ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Standardized approach (market risk)

Imagine if you went to different stores to buy crayons and every store had a different way of labeling the colors. It would be very confusing and you might end up buying the wrong color by accident.

The same thing can happen when banks need to measure the risks they are taking in the market. This is when they invest in things like stocks, bonds, and currencies. To make sure everyone is using the same colors (or methods), regulators have created a "standardized approach" for measuring market risk.

This means that all banks have to use the same methods to calculate how much money they might lose if a certain investment goes bad. It's like all the stores agreeing to call the color "red" the same way so everyone knows what they are getting.

Using a standardized approach helps regulators keep an eye on the banks to make sure they are not taking on too much risk. It also helps banks compare themselves to each other, so they can see if they are being too risky or not.

Overall, the standardized approach is like a set of rules that all the banks have to follow, to make sure they are all speaking the same language when it comes to measuring market risk.