Mumbai: Banks from the Asia-Pacific region as a whole were better placed to meet the higher capital requirements under Basel III norms, but Indian and Chinese banks may find it difficult to raise funds to meet the new norms due to their rising bad assets, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Monday.
"We expect banks in high-growth systems such as India and China to face challenges in maintaining or raising capital ratios to keep pace with growth in risk assets," S&P said in report.
It estimated that capital shortfall of major Indian and Chinese banks could reach about USD 100 billion by 2019 though, as a whole, it said that Asia Pacific banks were better placed than their peers elsewhere.
"Asia-Pacific banks are poised to take the global lead in implementing Basel III in 2013. Most countries in the region have published their final set of Basel III capital reform regulations effective from January 2013 and these banks will adopt the new capital regulations ahead of their global peers," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Naoko Nemoto said.
However, the Reserve Bank of India had last month rescheduled the starting date for implementation of the Basel III norms to April 2013.
As per the agency, while the US has delayed the implementation and timetable of the Basel-III capital reforms, a final draft is under discussion in the European Union.
PTI
First Published: Monday, January 21, 2013, 22:33