Several EU states are fighting a last-ditch battle to thin down the bloc’s most significant change in banking regulation for a decade, as Brussels prepares to set out long-awaited legislation.
The proposed rules will introduce a new capital minimum, or floor, making it harder for banks to use their own internal calculations to decide the size of their capital base.
The European Commission is expected to propose the rules — part of the international Basel III banking reforms — in September or October. But capitals led by Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Luxembourg are trying to persuade the commission to moderate the minimum level imposed, according to those involved in the discussions. The way in which the international standards have been drawn up threatens to penalise EU banks, they argue.