Basel changes stun bankers

Despite a year or so of conjecture and debate, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision still managed to spring a few surprises when it published proposals for a major overhaul of bank regulation on December 17. For one thing, the proposals landed earlier than had been anticipated – eight days after the conclusion of a crunch meeting at the committee’s headquarters in Basel. For another, there’s still no agreement on the much-discussed counter-cyclical capital buffer and its future is unclear