India's new deadline for Basel III implementation expires

India's deadline to implement Basel III, which is designed to regulate banks following the 2007-2009 global economic crisis, is set to expire four months after the original deadline which was set for January 1, 2013. The new deadline was set on December 28 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI's move comes as means to relief banks, which after the implementation of Basel III could not have equity capital of less than 5.5 percent of risk-weighted loans.

Earnings of banks are likely to come under pressure due to the higher capital requirements for the implementation of the new global risk mechanism.

The RBI had issued guidelines on implementation of Basel III capital regulation in India on May 2, 2012. These guidelines were supposed to be implemented gradually from January 1, 2013, until March 31, 2018.

According to the Basel Committee, only eleven members have published the final set of Basel III regulations effective January 1, 2013. These include Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland.

Seven other members including the EU and the US have issued draft regulations and have indicated that they are working towards issuing final versions in the near future.