LONDON (Reuters) – European Union member states have backed a temporary watering down and two-year delay to 2025 for the final leg of the globally agreed Basel III bank capital rules, the Czech EU presidency said on Tuesday.
EU states will now negotiate a final deal with the European Parliament.
Most of the Basel III rules, a set of tougher capital rules for banks after the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, have already been implemented.
European banks have lobbied hard for a temporary watering down some of the remaining Basel III features, arguing they already hold enough capital and that higher requirements would crimp lending to the economy.
EU ministers backed a two-year delay to the start date for rolling out the final rules, pushing it back to January 2025.
The revised rules would give relief until 2032 to largely neutralise capital increases for some banks holding low-risk mortgages.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Alex Richardson and David Goodman)
