LONDON — A global committee of banking regulators has offered lenders breathing space from topping up capital buffers to cover losses on loans to borrowers struggling to stay afloat in the coronavirus pandemic. "These measures support the provision of lending by banks to the real economy and provide additional operational capacity for banks and supervisors to respond to the immediate financial stability priorities," the Basel Committee of banking regulators said in a statement on Friday. Basel said it had agreed to amend its transitional arrangements for deciding how much capital must be set aside to cover anticipated losses on loans. It said this was in light of governments offering loan repayment holidays during a crisis. Normally, banks are required to step up provisioning when repayments are missed, but Basel said this did not have to be the case with a temporary payment holiday introduced by governments.

Source: International New York Times April 03, 2020 16:26 UTC