The higher capital requirements for banks adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision are not enough to provide the highest level of protection against future crises and should be more than doubled, according to Bank of England researchers. A discussion paper by the researchers stated that banks should be required to hold equity capital equal to 16% to 20% of their assets, well above the 7% required under Basel. Critics of the findings said the researchers did not consider other ways besides additional capital that could make banks safer.
