LONDON (Reuters) – Economy ministers from European Union member countries have agreed to a two-year postponement to 2025 of the implementation of the last part of the Basel III agreement on the strengthening of solvency rules for the banking sector, the Czech EU Presidency announced on Tuesday.
The Member States will now endeavor to reach an agreement with the European Parliament on this subject.
Most of the Basel III system, which aims to push banks to strengthen their balance sheets to avoid a new major financial crisis, has already been applied.
But European banks are seeking a temporary relaxation of some of the provisions that have yet to come into force, arguing that they already hold enough capital to cover the risks and that additional requirements would penalize lending to businesses and households.
The economy ministers have approved a two-year postponement of this implementation, initially scheduled for 2023.
(Reportage Huw Jones, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Matthieu Protard)
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