Big US banks face 20% jump in capital requirements: WSJ

BLOOMBERG 

Large US banks may face a 20% average increase in capital requirements from upcoming rule proposals as the collapse of several smaller lenders this year adds urgency to a push to bolster the industry’s financial strength, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The revised requirements could be proposed as early as June, and the specific increases will depend on lenders’ activities, according to the report, citing people the newspaper didn’t identify. Institutions with large trading businesses would take the biggest hit while those heavily dependent on fee income could also face significant increases, the report said.
Banking regulators around the world are tightening capital rules for the industry as they seek to wrap up the final chapter of their response to the financial crisis of 2008. The collapse of several banks in the US earlier this year served as a reminder of the fallout from weak lenders, while the biggest firms argue that capital rules going too far would hinder economic growth.
The biggest banks have argued that their steadiness in the recent turmoil showed their strength and that they already have more than enough capital. The six biggest US firms have added more than $200 billion to their capital reserves in the last decade.