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Approving any deal would be difficult until U.S. President
Donald Trump's Administration appoints a new top financial
supervisor at the Federal Reserve, the people said.
"There will be appointments in the United States and we have to
be a little bit patient. There is a sequence for these things,"
one of the people said. "Will there be an agreement in the
forseeable future? Then, yes."
The Basel Committee of banking regulators from nearly 30
countries meets on March 1-2.
Last November it was unable to reach a deal on reforms to inject
more consistency into how banks assess risks from loans to
determine the size of their capital buffers.
The reforms supplement a global "Basel III" accord already in
place, forcing banks to hold more capital after lenders had to
be rescued in the 2007-09 financial crisis.
Basel's oversight body, the Group of Central Bank Governors and
Heads of Supervision (GHOS), had to postpone a January meeting
aimed at brokering a deal because of splits over finer details.
The Basel Committee has largely done what it can and now it is
up to GHOS, a body whose members includes the Fed.
The committee had no comment on Thursday.
Regulators are anxious to see who Trump will name as Fed banks
supervision chief after he signed an executive order to review
regulation to help banks lend more.
It triggered concern in Europe that a global approach to banking
rules would be fragmented.
Some European regulators expect the United States to focus more
on easing rules that are specific to U.S. banks and not ditch
global standards altogether.
"What's important is that U.S. regulators remain committed to
coming back to the Basel table. We are patient," one of the
people said.
On Wednesday Fed Chair Janet Yellen was asked by a lawmaker to
avoid agreeing new Basel rules until Trump had named the central
bank's top financial supervisor.
"Nothing going on in these international discussions binds us to
carry out things in our rulemaking process," Yellen replied.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Susan Thomas)
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