Global banking regulators in Switzerland have reached a deal that will force the world’s banks to bolster their capital reserves, in one of the most important reforms to emerge from the financial crisis.
The long-awaited agreement hammered out on Sunday by central bankers and officials from the 27 member countries of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision follows months of debate on how to make banks more resilient to financial shocks.
Weaknesses in the previous Basel II rules have been blamed for the financial crisis. But bankers have warned that if the new standards are too harsh or the implementation deadlines are too short, lending will be curtailed, cutting economic growth and costing jobs.