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LONDON — Global banking regulators agreed on Sunday to ease a new rule, meant to rein in risky balance sheets starting in 2018, in an effort to avoid tightening financing for the world’s economy.
The decision by the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision is the latest sign of how regulators have become more willing to accommodate banks as the focus switches to helping economies recover.
The relief to lenders may, however, be temporary as the regulators signaled there is still no agreement on the final level of the new leverage ratio, which measures how much capital a bank must hold against its loans and other assets.
The ratio was initially set at 3 percent of bank capital, but regulators from the United States, Britain and elsewhere are pushing for a higher number.
The ratio acts as a backstop to a lender’s core risk-weighted capital requirements. A ratio of 3 percent means a bank must hold capital equivalent to 3 percent of its total assets.
The rule is part of the Basel III accord endorsed by world leaders in response to the 2007-09 financial crisis, which forced taxpayers to bail out undercapitalized and failing banks.
On Sunday, the Basel Committee’s oversight body, which is led by the European Central Bank’s president, Mario Draghi, backed key changes to the leverage ratio.
“The final calibration, and any further adjustments to the definition, will be completed by 2017,” the group said in a statement after its meeting in Basel, Switzerland.
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