WASHINGTON – On the same day the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced a board meeting next week to discuss Basel III capital rules, agency officials Tuesday said most community banks are already in solid position to comply with new requirements.
The FDIC board is scheduled June 12 to consider proposals for implementing the Basel international agreement. Some items on the board’s agenda, including a final rule dealing with market risk and a proposal to implement the so-called “advanced approaches” of Basel III, do not apply to small institutions.
Other proposals – including revisions of the “standardized approaches” to capital requirements, and minimum capital levels established under the Basel III accord – are more relevant for community banks. (The Federal Reserve Board is expected to consider the Basel regulations on Thursday.)
At a meeting Tuesday of the FDIC’s community bank advisory panel, George French, a deputy director in the agency’s division of risk management supervision, said community banks by and large have enough capital to be in accordance with new minimum capital levels.
“When we look at the capital ratios that community banks have, we think that basically community banks in the United States almost overwhelmingly already meet the requirements that would be proposed in these documents,” French said.
