Global bank regulators close to Basel deal: Bundesbank's Dombret

[October 11, 2017]  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Global regulators are close to reaching an agreement on new banking rules designed to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, the German central bank's representative at the talks said on Wednesday.

Andreas Dombret, member of the board of the Deutsche Bundesbank speaks during a news conference at the Deutsche Bundesbank's Regional Office in Hesse in Frankfurt October 26, 2014. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

Andreas Dombret's comments confirm a Reuters report on Tuesday that a decade-long effort to finalize the Basel III rules, aimed at making banks more resilient to financial shocks after a string of bailouts, is nearing its end.

"We, the Basel Committee...currently work on the final piece to complete global regulatory reforms after the financial crisis ...and we are close to an agreement," Dombret, a director at the Bundesbank, told an audience in New York.

The struggle to finalize Basel III is a symptom of regulatory fatigue that has set in as governments, wary of burdening banks with ever more stringent capital requirements, focus increasingly on economic growth.

Further discussions on the Basel package are expected to take place in Washington when global central bankers gather this week for the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; editing by John Stonestreet)

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