Bank Capital Requirements after the Financial Crisis

Regulators responded with an array of strategies to shore up weaknesses exposed by the 2008 financial crisis. This chapter focuses on reforms to bank capital regulation. We first discuss the ways in which the post-crisis Basel III reforms recalibrated the existing framework by improving the quality of capital, increasing the quantity of capital, and improving the calculation of risk weights. We then shift to the major structural changes in the regulatory capital framework—capital buffers on top of the minimum requirements; a leverage ratio that explicitly accounts for off-balance-sheet exposures; risk-based and leverage capital surcharges on the largest banks; bail-in debt to facilitate orderly resolution; and forward-looking stress tests. We conclude with a quantitative assessment of the evolution of capital in the global banking system and in the US banking sector.