(Bloomberg) — A majority of banks want the EU to postpone the adoption of new trading book rules, a survey shows, heaping pressure on the bloc to follow similar moves in the US and the UK.
A “clear majority” of participants in a survey were in favor of “an additional one-year delay” to changing a set of rules known as Fundamental Review of the Trading Book, two influential lobby organizations said in a written response to an EU consultation.
Europe’s plan to implement the FRTB changes was derailed after the US failed to agree on its own version of a wider set of capital rules known as Basel Endgame. The EU Commission has already pushed back FRTB implementation to 2026 to avoid putting the bloc’s lenders at a disadvantage to their global competitors.
But many EU banks are demanding yet another delay saying that the previous postponement hasn’t been enough.
The topic has pitted Europe’s largest banks, who support the fresh postponement, against smaller ones, who say it would cost them money.
“A minority of the respondents” were in favor of sticking with the current implementation plan “to avoid continued operational complexities,” the two lobby organizations — the Institute of International Finance and the International Swaps & Derivatives Association — said in their consultation response.
The IIF and ISDA polled 32 global banks on the topic, with 21 of them favoring another delay. Previous reports suggested as few as four or five banks, led by BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, were pushing for postponement.
A separate submission from the European Banking Federation also pressed the EU to consider reforms to dilute the capital impact of the changes and to consider allowing some banks to implement in 2026 while others hold off until 2027. The Commission has already spoken out against that idea.
“Probably now the idea to implement the FRTB will be in a way that is much more neutral than the current approach,” BNP Paribas Chief Executive Officer Jean-Laurent Bonnafe said during an earnings call earlier this week when asked about the matter. “It could start with another delay of implementation, and then be followed by a change in approach.”
Originally slated for implementation from 2022, the final package of Basel rules has been beset by delays. The EU introduced most of it earlier this year, but opted to postpone the trading book elements pending clarity on the US plans.
The UK has announced three delays to the entire package, while the US timeline remains unclear as a new slate of regulators assumes office. The Swiss have implemented in full, as have the Canadians and Japanese.
–With assistance from Claudia Cohen and Nicholas Comfort.
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