EU Commission proposes postponement of some Basel III rules
In the face of the deregulation envisaged by the Trump administration in the United States, Brussels is considering postponing the application of rules on the measurement of market risks until 2027. While reiterating support for the Basel standards
from our correspondent Beda Romano
Aggiungi Il Sole 24 Oreai preferiti su Google
2' min read
2' min read
BRUSSELS - The process of loosening the financial rules introduced after the dramatic 2008-09 meltdown continues. The European Commission proposed yesterday to postpone by one (more) year, from 2026 to 2027, the application of some rules included in the Basel III package, negotiated in recent years at international level. The rules being postponed by the EU executive refer to the measurement of market risks.
"We fully support the implementation of the Basel III standards to safeguard financial stability," said Financial Affairs Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque. "At the same time, we should remain vigilant to ensure that EU banks remain competitive. In light of the delayed implementation of standards in other important jurisdictions (...) it is necessary to propose a further one-year delay of the market risk framework'.
In fact, the EU executive published a delegated act, which postpones the application of the rules by a further year (a first postponement from 2025 to 2026 had been decided in July last year). "The decision will now be subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council for a period of three months," the European Commission explained yesterday. Concretely, the measure concerns the trading book (the so-called trading book, in English).
"The new rules," notes the EU executive, "incorporate more sophisticated risk measurement techniques aimed at aligning capital requirements with the actual risks banks face in their capital market activities. The postponement, according to Brussels, has to do with the possibility that some key jurisdictions, including the US but possibly also the UK, will revise the framework of rules that was introduced in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008.
Basically, the Basel III standards have already applied to all European banks since 1 January, with the exception of the market risk framework, which will now come into force in 2027. The postponement of the latter chapter was one of the options on the table. Other options were the confirmation of application as of 2026 or a watering down of the rules for a transitional period, pending choices in other jurisdictions. The latter possibility would have created fertile ground for a relaxation of capital requirements.
