Macron Calls on EU to Delay Basel Banking Rules if US Does Too

(Bloomberg) - Emmanuel Macron said the European Union should "synchronize" its financial regulation with the US, repeating his call not to apply stricter rules than others.

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"If we want to be competitive with the Americans, we have to synchronize two things: we have to try to push back regulations that are moving too fast in some areas and we have to try to get back on the same scale," Macron said. "If they decide and confirm that they will not apply prudential rules to their operators, we need to give ourselves a little time, a little flexibility, so that we can reinvest in our own capital."

New bank capital rules would impose more stringent capital requirements on banks to safeguard from future crises. Countries across the world were due to implement them simultaneously but various jurisdictions, including the U.S., have since chosen their own timeframes, prompting banks to complain about potential disadvantages.

Macron was speaking on a panel in Paris about the future of European competitiveness alongside former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, who had laid out an agenda earlier this year on how to harness the EU's single market and integrate its financial sector. Macron has repeatedly endorsed Draghi's conclusions, including the need for an EU-wide banking supervision system.

On Wednesday, Macron took aim at rules for insurers as well as those for banks, saying that they "added a lot of constraints on our bankers and insurers and made them exit the equity economy."

He added that if the EU's 27 member states can't agree on a capital markets union within 18 months, a smaller group of like-minded states could gather together to reach an agreement on one.

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Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan commented on the banking industry's outlook around regulations, including amendments to Basel III endgame requirements, heading into a second Trump presidency. The banking chief executive believes "cooler heads will prevail" around banking legislation. RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy joins Seana Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to speak more on the topic. "I think the incoming regulators with this administration might look more favorable toward the banks. We're still going to have a Basel III endgame," Cassidy explains. "And the critical part about it, which is what I think everybody wants, particularly the banks, is to have a finalization of this process and be done with it, lock it down so it cannot be reopened in the future." Catch the full interview with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan at the Yahoo Finance Invest conference. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.