Big banks squawk about Basel Committee reforms
Ira Teinowitz (The Deal)
August 30, 2011

“Big bank holding companies and financial groups are criticizing the Basel Committee’s attempt to toughen capital standards for banks under Basel III, as well as a requirement that global systemically important banks face additional surcharges. They warned the Secretariat of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision last week that the additional requirements could go too far and harm lending and individual country economies. They also said the proposed formula for determining who would face the harshest surcharge needs major reworking. … Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of consumer groups, suggested the surcharges were too low, not too high. It said that too many systemically significant banks would pay 1% to 2.5%. ‘The benefits of higher capital levels for systemically important banks are clearly much greater than the benefits of higher capital for ordinary banks,’ the group said in a statement.”  Click here for more.