Basel I, the first of the three Basel Accords, created a set of rules that banks must follow to mitigate risk.
Basel I is now considered too limited in scope, but it laid the foundation for subsequent Basel Accords.
With the advent of Basel I, banking assets were classified according to their level of risk, and banks are required to maintain emergency capital based on this classification.
Under Basel I, banks were required to hold on hand capital of at least 8% of their defined risk profile.