Heute ist eine Einikgung über die neuen Eigenkapitalvorschriften für Banken erzielt worden:
BASEL, Switzerland —Top central bankers and bank regulators agreed Sunday on far-reaching new rules for the global banking industry that that more than triple the amount of capital banks must hold in reserve as a shield against financial disasters. But the new requirements could also dampen bank profits and strain weaker institutions.
Financial authorities from 27 countries reached agreement on rules that require banks to raise the amount of common equity they hold to 7 percent of assets from 2 percent, part of a series of measures intended to help avert crises of the kind that nearly plunged the world into depression in late 2008.
[...]
While the capital requirements represent a substantial increase, they are not as severe as some analysts had predicted. Some expected the Basel group to sharply raise the requirement for common equity — the capital that ordinary shareholders have invested in a bank, including retained earnings — to about 8 percent of bank assets.
In one concession to the banking industry, the central bankers and regulators left it up to individual nations whether to require banks to increase reserves by as much as an additional 2.5 percent in boom times.
But the group stuck with plans to impose a so-called leverage ratio despite objections from some in the banking industry. The new requirement would oblige banks to maintain reserves of at least 3 percent of total assets, including derivatives or other instruments that they might not carry on their balance sheets.
Die neuen Vorschriften treten jedoch nicht sofort in Kraft:
The rules will be phased in gradually to give banks plenty of time to adjust. The rules on common equity reserves will be phased through 2015, but the leverage ratio won’t take full effect until 2018.
Es ist verständlich, dass jene Banken, die von den verschärften Eigenkapitalvorschriften ebenfalls betroffen sind, die jedoch - im Gegensatz zu anderen, wesentlich risikoreichere Geschäftsmodelle verfolgenden Banken - keine Schuld für die Finanzkrise trifft, über Basel III wenig erfreut sind.
Die schrittweise, langsame Durchsetzung der neuen Vorschriften impliziert die Befürchtung, dass die nächste große Krise schon da sein könnte, bevor Basel III bei den Großbanken überhaupt seine ganze regulierende Wirkung entfalten kann.
