On November 10, 2016, the European Parliament published a press release on a vote taken by its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (“ECON“) in relation to revisions to Basel III, which are currently under consideration by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (“BCBS“).

The text of the resolution has not been published, yet the release states that it calls on the European Central Bank (“ECB”), the European Commission (“EC”) and the EBA to engage in the BCBS’s work and report to the ECON on their progress. Furthermore, the press release states that the revisions should:

• strengthen the overall financial provision of European banks but should not significantly increase overall capital requirements;
• respect the principle of proportionality and the important role played by banks in financing the European economy; and
• consider and mitigate the differences between jurisdictions and, at the same time, avoid penalizing the EU banking model.

The resolution will be considered by the European Parliament in its plenary session between November 21, 2016 and November 24, 2016.

The package of reforms to Basel III is expected by the end of 2016 and will cover issues such as internal ratings-based (“IRB“) approaches and operational risk as well as the standardized approach for credit risk.