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Central bank governors and heads of supervision from nearly 30
countries were due to meet on Jan. 8 to approve the new rules
that will determine how much capital lenders have to set aside
against loans and other assets.
The Basel III reform has proven divisive, with European
regulators worrying that higher capital demands would curb bank
lending - the prime source of funding for companies in the
region.
The Basel Committee working on the reform said on Tuesday more
work was needed before its proposals could be submitted for
approval by its oversight body, the Group of Central Bank
Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS).
Sources close to the matter told Reuters the main sticking point
relates to a "floor" on how much capital a bank needs to hold
irrespective of what its own model says.
"More time is needed to finalize some work, including ensuring
the framework's final calibration," the Basel Committee said.
"A meeting of the GHOS, originally planned for early January,
has therefore been postponed. The Committee is expected to
complete this work in the near future."
It is due to meet again on March 1-2.
The capital floor rule is bound to have a major impact on large
banks such as Germany's Deutsche <DBKGn.DE> that use their own,
rather than standard, computer models to determine their
required capital buffers.
Disagreements on this and other matters meant the Committee
failed to strike a deal in Chile in November, missing its
end-2016 deadline.
Sources told Reuters last month the floor rule had been softened
to win over the Europeans.
Specifically, the sources said Basel members had agreed on a
lengthy phase-in whereby the capital floor would start in 2020
at 55 percent of the amount that would be required if a bank had
used the standard approach set out by regulators for totting up
risks.
It would then rise by 5 percentage points to a maximum of 75
percent by 2025.
Basel had originally proposed a floor which would rise as high
as 90 percent.
(Reporting by Francesco Canepa, Andreas Kroener and Frank
Siebelt; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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