Dutch banks can withstand higher capital requirements: Central bank

AMSTERDAM: Dutch banks are more than ready to withstand a possible hit from higher capital requirements being discussed by the Basel Committee of global banking regulators, Dutch central bank director Jan Sijbrand said on Monday.

Dutch lenders performed relatively well in European stress tests last summer aimed at calculating their resilience to a severe theoretical economic and financial shock.

"The Dutch banks are heavily capitalised," Sijbrand told reporters in Amsterdam. "If the risk weighting goes up by 10-20-30 percent, they still easily meet the requirements."

Dutch banks had "easily passed" the stress tests, he said. "They are simply well capitalised and can take a hit and they can take this one too. That is not to say this will help the business or the market," he said.

Global regulators are currently meeting in Chile, trying to reach an agreement on new capital rules that could see banks having to adopt higher risk weightings on certain assets.