Danes push for tighter bank capital rules

Talks expected to last at least another two weeks.

Officials from Denmark are racing to reach agreement with MEPs on bank-capital requirement rules before the country’s presidency of the  Council of Ministers comes to an end on 30 June.

Two meetings took place in Strasbourg this week, and about a dozen have been held since a first set of talks on 23 May, after the European Parliament and member states adopted positions on the draft legislation on 14 May and 15 May respectively.

CRD IV – the fourth version of the EU’s capital requirement directive, which now takes the form of a directive and regulation – is the EU’s method of implementing global Basel III rules on bank stability. One official with knowledge of the discussions said that he expected the negotiations, which also involve the European Commission, to continue for at least another two weeks.

Flexibility

Member states agreed that national regulators should have greater flexibility in imposing capital requirements on their banks than had been foreseen in the original proposal, put forward in November by Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market and services.

However, Othmar Karas, an Austrian centre-right MEP who drafted the Parliament’s report on the proposed directive, wants the rules to be more binding. The Parliament and the Council of Ministers must reach agreement before CRD IV can become law.