Global financial regulators boosted capital requirements for JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BNP Paribas SAunder rules intended to help avoid a repeat of the 2008 global financial crisis, in which the largest lenders were deemed too big to fail.
The Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland, said the three banks would be required to set aside a further 0.5% of common equity Tier 1 capital under rules for the world’s largest lenders—the so-called global systemically important banks, of which there are currently 30. The higher requirements become effective in January 2023, the FSB said in a statement Tuesday.
The higher capital requirements won’t have an immediate impact on the U.S. banks, since the Federal Reserve already requires higher additional capital standards for the biggest banks. The FSB’s decisions on additional capital requirements come in the form of recommendations, which national regulators have vowed to follow.
The changes “largely reflect the effects of changes in underlying activity of banks,” the FSB said. Bank balance sheets swelled during the pandemic, a response to huge amounts of central bank stimulus and government spending. JPMorgan’s total assets grew by more than a quarter to $3.39 trillion in 2020, from $2.69 trillion the year before.
The FSB updates its list of biggest banks annually. JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, must have an additional capital buffer of 2.5%, becoming the only global lender with a requirement of this size. The aim of the buffer is to ensure that the biggest banks have enough loss-absorbing capacity for an orderly resolution if the bank fails.
A JPMorgan spokesperson said the bank already meets the requirement because the Federal Reserve has set it a higher surcharge of 3.5%.
The Federal Reserve has set Goldman Sachs a surcharge of 2.5%, higher than the FSB’s new requirement of 1.5%. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
BNP Paribas must have an additional capital buffer of 2%, joining Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings PLC, which already have to meet that level. BNP Paribas declined to comment.
“Banks have headroom in their capital ratios to manage it,” said Richard Barnes, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings.
The FSB’s secretariat is hosted by the Bank for International Settlements, a group owned by central banks around the world. After the rush of bank failures and bailouts in 2008 and 2009, regulators came together under the FSB to set minimum uniform standards for bank capital.