Planned global banking rules not balanced, need changes: Dombrovskis

[BRUSSELS] A planned reform of global banking rules being discussed by the United States, Europe, Japan and other major economies risks negatively affecting European banks and needs to be changed, the EU financial services commissioner said on Thursday.

The Basel Committee, a body of banking supervisors from nearly 30 countries, set the year-end as the deadline to conclude an overhaul of existing banking rules - known as Basel III - meant to make the sector safer.

It has been criticised by opponents for increasing the capital banks must hold against risk.

"As things stand, the proposals Basel has issued for consultation would imply significant capital requirement increases in all areas," EU commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a banking conference in Brussels on Thursday.

He said work remains to be done on a number of areas to avoid changes that would lead to a significant increase in the capital requirements for Europe's banking sector.

REUTERS