European Banks call for smooth implementation of Basel II in the US

At the first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) held today in Washington, under the chairmanship of European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen and President Bush's economic policy adviser, Allan Hubbard, the European Banking Federation (EBF) asked the TEC Co-chairs to provide their full political support to an agreement that would allow for the mutual recognition of Basel II implementation in the EU and the US.

This request follows the recent announcement by the Federal Reserve Board on November, 2 that the final rules to implement the new risk-based capital requirements had been approved. Fed Chairman Bernanke himself declared that finalising this new rule actually meant the US were moving ahead with Basel implementation.

Basel II would be mandatory for large, internationally active banking organizations and optional for others. "European banks are primarily concerned with the consistency of the new rules with the Basel II framework. Implementation in the US should be technically consistent with international approaches, thus ensuring a level playing field in international banking", said Guido Ravoet, Secretary General of the EBF. The same would apply to the future rules that would provide all non-core banking organizations with the option to adopt a standardised approach under Basel II.

European banks have also seized the opportunity of the TEC to raise other key aspects of financial markets regulation where decisive coordinated EU-US action could bridge the gap in financial markets structures and regulations between the two markets. This applies to opportunities for mutual recognition of securities regulation, a coordinated approach towards Sovereign Wealth Funds and a coordinated approach to financial sanctions.

These issues should also be feeding the agenda of the EU-US Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue. "We have been calling for increased transparency in EU-US financial markets regulatory coordination, added Ravoet.  We believe that the TEC will provide the necessary political impetus and visibility to the work programme pursued by the Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue and that, in return, it will be regularly updated on progress achieved".

Set up in 1960, the European Banking Federation (EBF) is the voice of the European banking sector. It represents the interests of over 5000 European banks, large and small, from 29 national Banking Associations, with assets of more than EUR 20,000 billion and over 2.3 million employees.