BloombergAustralia’s biggest banks would have to hold more capital under fresh guidelines from the Australian prudential regulator aimed at ensuring the institutions are “unquestionably strong.”The four major banks — Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank Ltd — would need to have tier-1 capital ratios of at least 10.5 percent by Jan. 1, 2020, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) said in a statement yesterday. The average across the banks last year was 9.85 percent, Morgan Stanley & Co data showed. Westpac needs A$700 million of fresh capital, while ANZ has a A$1.4 billion surplus, Morgan Stanley said. In 2015, the big banks collectively raised A$20 billion in new capital after the regulator increased the amount banks had to hold against potential home-loan losses. The agency said it “encourages” the banks to consider raising their capital benchmarks more quickly than the formal deadline.

Source: Taipei Times July 19, 2017 15:56 UTC