Osborne Rejects ‘Idiotic’ Basel III Plan

During a meeting of Europe’s finance ministers, Osborne stated that implementing “Basel III” bank rules would result in ridicule from financial markets and the banking sector because it blatantly failed to enforce tough and clear rules.

“We are not implementing the Basel agreement as anyone who will look at this text will be able to tell you. I’m not prepared to go out there and say something that will make me an idiot five minutes later,” Osborne said.

The “Basel III” agreement was agreed following the 2008 financial crisis; however, Britain insists that regulation of banks should not be subject to EU approval, and that tougher requirements should be implemented on a case by case basis. A compromise is being sought, and Osborne has warned that a failure to implement the agreement would represent a massive failure.

“If we duck the challenge of implementing Basel we could face very important challenges to confidence in Europe this year,” he said.

“We certainly won’t fool the financial markets, who will continue to be wary of investing in Europe and investing in European banks.

“Are we implementing the Basel agreement or not? It won’t just be a political failure. It could be an economic failure for this continent.”

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