Frankfurt: Germany's ten biggest lenders, including Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG, may need about $135 billion (Dh385.35 billion) in fresh capital because of new regulation, according to the Association of German Banks.
The lenders would need to raise that sum to reach an estimated 10 per cent tier 1 capital ratio, said Dirk Jaeger, who is responsible for regulatory topics at the association.
His comments at a press conference in Frankfurt were confirmed by Volker Knauer, a BdB spokesman. The Tier 1 ratio is a key measure of financial strength.
The German banks said higher capital requirements, which are scheduled to be proposed today by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, may endanger the economic recovery by restricting the ability to lend.
The so-called Basel III rules should be implemented over a time period of 10 to 12 years to give banks sufficient time, according to the German association.
"Banks face enormous challenges," Hans-Joachim Massenberg, the group's deputy managing director, said in a separate statement yesterday.
The Institute of International Finance, a global lobbying group, said in June that proposed bank regulations may erase 3.1 per cent of gross domestic product in the US, the euro region and Japan by 2015.
The Basel committee, which represents central banks and regulators in 27 nations and sets capital standards for lenders worldwide, last month rebuffed such complaints, saying the impact on economic growth would be "modest."
Germany's BdB association also said it's opposing planned leverage requirements, a measure of how much borrowed money banks use.
