Global financial market policymakers met over the weekend and agreed on several steps towards better banking regulation.

The oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision met to review a variety of measures designed to strengthen the regulation, supervision and risk management of the banking sector.

The body, which is comprised of members from 27 countries including Canada and the U.S., agreed to several measures to raise the quality, consistency and transparency of Tier 1 capital. The members also agreed on a plan to introduce a leverage ratio to the Basel II capital adequacy framework, introduce a minimum global standard for funding liquidity, and to introduce a framework for countercyclical capital buffers.

The committee also pledged to issue recommendations to reduce the systemic risk associated with the resolution of cross-border banks, and said it would assess the need for a capital surcharge to mitigate the risk of systemic banks.

The Basel Committee will issue concrete proposals on these measures by the end of this year, and it will carry out an impact assessment at the beginning of next year. The committee said calibration of the new requirements would be completed by the end of 2010.

The group also endorsed several principles for banking regulators in managing the transition to tougher capital requirements. For example, they endorsed the idea that supervisors should require banks to strengthen their capital base through a combination of capital conservation measures, including actions to limit excessive dividend payments, share buybacks and compensation. In addition, compensation should be aligned with prudent risk-taking and long-term, sustainable performance, the group said. Also, banks should be required to raise the level and quality of capital to the new standards, but in a manner that promotes stability of national banking systems and the broader economy, they said.

The oversight committee said that these measures would substantially reduce the probability and severity of economic and financial stress.

“The agreements reached today among 27 major countries of the world are essential as they set the new standards for banking regulation and supervision at the global level,” said Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, who chairs the group.

Nout Wellink, chairman of the Basel Committee and president of the Netherlands Bank, stated that, “central banks and supervisors have responded to the crisis by strengthening microprudential regulation, in particular the Basel II framework. We are working toward the introduction of a macroprudential overlay which includes a countercyclical capital buffer, as well as practical steps to address the risks arising from systemic, interconnected banks”.

Wellink emphasized that, “these measures will result over time in higher capital and liquidity requirements and less leverage in the banking system, less procyclicality, greater banking sector resilience to stress and strong incentives to ensure that compensation practices are properly aligned with long-term performance and prudent risk-taking.”