The federal banking regulators Thursday called on institutions to send comments to the Basel committee about proposed changes in the international capital rules.
In a separate move, the U.S. regulators issued guidance to help institutions implement new Basel standards involving transparency in cross-border funds transfers.
The Basel committee has been in discussions since last year to improve the Basel II capital standards in light of the market turmoil stemming from the financial crisis. Proposed rules issued Thursday by the committee would raise the quality of institutions' capital base and introduce "a leverage ratio as a supplementary measure to the Basel II risk-based framework."
The committee gave institutions until April 16 to comment on the proposals.
The guidance on funds transfers followed a May 2009 paper from the Basel committee that said institutions need to give better information in the special instruction messages accompanying wire transfers.
