Banking package close to completion

On 6 December, the EU Member States approved a banking package that implements the last parts of the Basel III agreement in the EU. The European Parliament is also expected to approve the agreed rules in the near future.

FI will now conduct a more in-depth analysis of the regulation and its effects. Major sections of the new regulation will come into effect on 1 January 2025, but its design is complicated by its many, long transitional rules. For instance, the output floor is being phased in up to 2030. In combination with existing buffers and risk weight floors, the banking package can lead to an increase in capital requirements for banks covered by the output floor. However, due to the transitional rules, it will take several years before these increases come into effect.

As FI previously communicated, we do not see a mechanical increase in the capital requirements resulting from the regulatory changes. Therefore, in the coming years, FI will review the buffers and risk weight floors currently in place. It is still too early to elaborate further on how possible changes in the application of the capital requirements will look. It is FI's position that it is important for financial stability to have a large buffer function element in the banks' capital requirements. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the overall capital requirements will increase due to the need to ensure that banks have sufficient usable capital.