TRADING BOOK CAPITAL - UP, UP AND AWAY

New rules by the Basel Committee of Banking Supervisors (BCBS) have reduced the amount of EXTRA trading book capital to be held, with the extra amount to be on average some 40% higher than today, amounting to approximately some $75 billion in new capital.  The previous standards would have resulted in extra capital of some 75% according to the IFR whom reported on this story on January 9th, 2016.  Another area of focus in stopping banks from moving assets between the Banking Book and Trading Book with regulators being able to stop the use of trading book treatment at the desk level.  Such rules are expected to hit big global trading banks more heavily than others. The Basel document itself can be found at  http://www.bis.org/bcbs/publ/d305.pdf. The FT has also run a story on this which can be found at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf292744-be05-11e5-846f-79b0e3d20eaf.html#axzz3xiHPKatV.