Inspectors fault EU bank capital plans

The EU’s plans for tightening bank capital rules fail to live up to the Basel III banking reform, an inspection team of global regulators from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said in a report published on the 1 October 2012.

The draft EU directive is 'noncompliant' with the global deal in two important areas. Its definitions of top-quality capital are looser in at least seven ways and a loophole allows many big banks to assume that their sovereign debt holdings are risk-free.

Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: Basel III regulatory consistency assessment (Level 2). Preliminary report: European Union, October 2012 http://www.bis.org/bcbs/implementation/l2_eu.pdf

ESO: Background information: Danes push for grand compromise on bank rules / EU edges towards deal on bank safety / UK in furious rejection of EU bank plan / UK ready to back EU bank reform http://www.europeansources.info/record/danes-push-for-grand-compromise-on-bank-rules-eu-edges-towards-deal-on-bank-safety-uk-in-furious-rejection-of-eu-bank-plan-uk-ready-to-back-eu-bank-reform/

EUObserver, 2.10.12: EU falling short on bank capital rules, warns regulator http://euobserver.com/news/117722

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