BASEL, Switzerland — Bankers and analysts said new global rules could mean less money available to lend to businesses and consumers but praised a decision to leave plenty of time — until 2019 — before the financial stability requirements come into full force.
The so-called Basel III rules, which will gradually require banks to hold greater capital buffers to absorb potential losses, are likely to affect the credit industry by imposing stricter discipline on credit cards, mortgages and other loans.
Requiring banks to keep more capital on hand will limit the amount of money they can lend, but it will make them better able to withstand the blow if many of those loans go sour.
European Central Bank chairman Jean-Claude Trichet said leading central bankers who reached the deal Sunday in Basel were convinced that the new measures were a “fundamental strengthening of global capital standards” which would make a large contribution to economic stability and growth.
Trichet declined to estimate how much money banks would need to raise to meet the new rules, but analysts expect the figure to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. He also said he had “full confidence” that the measures would be implemented by U.S. authorities, despite their not fully having adopted the last round of Basel rules.
European savings banks warned that the new capital requirements could affect their lending by unfairly penalizing small, part-publicly owned institutions.
“We see the danger that German banks’ ability to give credit could be significantly curtailed,” said Karl-Heinz Boos, head of the Association of German Public Sector Banks.
