CAMELS Rating System

The CAMELS Rating System is a supervisory framework used by US bank regulators to evaluate the overall condition of financial institutions across six dimensions: Capital Adequacy, Asset Quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, and Sensitivity to Market Risk. Each component is scored on a scale of 1 (strong) to 5 (critically deficient), and a composite score is assigned based on examiner judgment. Developed in the US federal banking regulatory context, CAMELS emerged as the standard on-site examination tool and has since been adopted and adapted by regulators globally.