Basel Committee Delays Completion of Final Rules

WASHINGTON – A group of central bankers has postponed its planned meeting to review the details of the final capital and governance standards outlined in the Basel III accords, offering little explanation except that "more time is needed" to complete the rules.

In a statement issued early Tuesday morning, the Group of Central Bank Governors and Heads of Supervision – known as GHOS, which oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – said that it would be postponing its early-January meeting and would be completing the final Basel rules "in the near future."

"Completing Basel III is an important step towards restoring confidence in banks' risk-weighted capital ratios, and we remain committed to that goal," said Mario Draghi, chairman of the GHOS and president of the European Central Bank.

The Basel Committee had been pushing to complete the final rules – including credit, operational and market risk capital requirements, as well as minimum standards for banks' internal risk models – by the end of 2016. But negotiations held in November in Chile stalled, particularly on the question of setting standardized "floors" for internal risk models – an issue that banks have derisively referred to as Basel IV.

European banks have been particularly critical of the direction of the final rules, with EU officials suggesting that if the final rules require any additional capital burden on their banks, the bloc will ignore them and develop their own standards. And the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump has been similarly hostile to the Basel accords, saying they are stifling growth.