A focus on gone-concern contingent capital

Regulators have found it easier to reach consensus on a standard for contingent capital that converts at the point of a bank’s insolvency, but continue to struggle with the definitions for going-concern conversion. How will supervisors proceed? Joel Clark reports

This year is turning out to be an odd one for regulatory capital. As the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision enters the final stage of calibrating the Basel II reform package, dubbed Basel III, it seems likely banks will need to raise hefty amounts of extra capital to meet the new requirements. But nothing is yet guaranteed, and the possibility of significant recalibration, coupled with the uncertainty over what instrument types will qualify under the new framework, means capital issuance has