	german banking authorities weigh swap regulations german banking authorities are weighing rules for banks off balance sheet activities in an attempt to cope with the growing volume of sophisticated capital market instruments banking sources said interest rate and currency swaps and currency options are under closest scrutiny and if revisions are made they may resemble regulation jointly proposed by the u s and u k to japan juergen becker director of the bundesbank s division of banking law and credit supervision said the u s british proposals were interesting but declined to elaborate but banking sources said west germany was more likely to produce its own conclusions than to adopt foreign proposals there is no formal plan yet but talks are in the latter stages one representative of the german banking association in cologne said bankers expect rule changes this year all alterations must be approved by the bundesbank west germany s four major banking associations and the federal banking supervisory office talks have been slowed by the fact that fundamental changes would require a revision of germany s credit law which has been in effect since authorities favour reinterpreting the credit law to fit present circumstances in order to avoid the long parliamentary political process of changing it banking sources said since the beginning of the banking law has limited banks lending to times shareholders equity plus reserves on a consolidated basis but lending ratios do not extend to several newer instruments such as spot and forward currency contracts currency and interest swaps commercial paper programs currency options interest rate futures in foreign currencies and various innovative types of interest rate hedges the sources said the main value of the u s u k proposals lay in differentiating between different types of risk factor and for instance in placing greater weight on currency swaps than interest swaps but even if german banking authorities agree with some of the assessments of swaps they disagree on how to find balance sheet equivalents for the risk u s british proposals include a complicated series of formulae for assessing the stream of payments involved in swaps whose ultimate risk is borne by the financial intermediary especially when counterparties remain anonymous this is the so called market to market value but german authorities are likely to consider this much too complex and to base their evaluation instead on a schedule of lending ratings assigned according to the creditworthiness of the borrowers involved the sources said the weightings also likely if lending ratios are extended to include banks securities portfolios are zero for public authorities pct for domestic banks pct for foreign banks and pct for other foreign and non bank borrowers a further complication is that the more flexible definitions of equity allowed in the u s and the u k may put german banks at a competitive disadvantage the sources said stricter definitions here also mean the use of a version of the u s u k proposals could far exceed the intent of the u s and british authorities the sources said one specialist for dresdner bank ag said a long dated foreign exchange forward transaction could for instance be brought under the same rule as a cross currency swap despite the fact that the risk may be entirely different how new regulations will affect foreign banks here was uncertain many have converted to full subsidiary status and applied for a full banking licence over the last two years in order to lead manage mark eurobonds but as their equity capital is fairly small tight lending ratios will severely hamper foreign banks freedom of movement particularly in the growing business of currency swaps if they are required to include more transactions in the balance sheet the sources added reuter 
