UK eschews Basel II capital requirements

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The UK government will distance itself from the capital requirements laid out under Basel II, says Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, in testimony to the UK Parliament's Treasury committee today.

"The difficulty we have is that we have an international system for setting capital requirements for banks, the Basel II requirements, which built into it an element of pro-cyclicality," said King. "Everyone agrees that is the wrong way to go... Domestically, we have to make sure we put in pla