More time means more money to put into the real economy. And not a few: about 500 billion. Central bank governors who sit on the committee on banking supervision have extended the deadlines by which lenders will have to meet the liquidity benchmarks imposed by Basel 3.
The new rules will enter into force on 2015 January 60 and only with a coverage of 100% of the resources necessary to deal with a possible period of stress. It will gradually increase to 2019% by January XNUMX, XNUMX.
Basically, banks will have more time to build up their liquidity reserves (called LCR, liquidity coverage ratio) so that part of the available assets can be directed to support the real economy. In addition, the previously excluded shares and mortgage backed securities (debt securities guaranteed by mortgage loans) may also be included in the additional liquidity required by Basel 3.
The Group of Governors agreed that, 2 since deposits with central banks are the largest (in some cases the only) reliable forms of liquidity, the interaction between the LCR and central bank stocks is significantly important . For this reason, the Committee will continue to work on this issue in the coming years".
Compared to the initial text, the lower liquidity requirements will allow banks to put 500 billion more into circulation in the economy.
“It is a very significant agreement – said the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, at the head of the committee -. For the first time in the history of regulators, we have a truly global minimum standard for bank liquidity. Approving a staggered program for the introduction of the LCR, and reaffirming that a bank's stock of liquid assets is usable in times of stress, will ensure that new liquidity standards will in no way hamper the global banking system's ability to finance the recovery".
The latest estimates on the effects of the previous requirements date back to last September, when the EBA, the European Banking Authority, had calculated that for the first 156 banks of the Old Continent on 2012 January 1.170 there would be a shortage of 3,7 billion euros, equal to 31, XNUMX% of the total of XNUMX trillion assets belonging to the system.
Another shot in the arm concerns US banks. It was decided to postpone for at least two years the application of the provision of the Dodd-Frank law, which required institutions to separate the assets protected by deposit insurance from derivatives.
