Bank of England Delays Basel Rules

The Bank of England has postponed the publication of Basel bank capital rules, Reuters reports.

The rules, aimed at strengthening global bank capital requirements, will now be published after the summer, raising concerns about whether the planned start date of July 2025 remains feasible.

In December 2023, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) announced that it intended to release the remaining near-final rules in the second quarter of this year, giving banks a year to prepare for the changes.

However, UK regulatory announcements were delayed for several weeks leading up to the general election on July 4.

A PRA spokesperson said:  "We are now in the last stages of completing our work on the Basel 3.1 package and expect to publish near-final rules shortly after the summer break."

The standards were developed by the global Basel Committee, with member jurisdictions such as the UK, the US, and European Union adapting them for their own national regulations.

The UK is not the first country to delay the publication of the rules. The US had also planned to implement its version of the Basel Endgame rules by July 2025 but faced criticism from banks and trade associations in response to the initial proposal.

In response to indications that the US will miss the deadline, the European Union postponed a key component of the rules to prevent any disadvantage to European banks due to the US’ delay.

It has delayed the release of the fundamental review of the trading book, which addresses how banks manage market risks in their trading books, from January 2025 to January 2026.