Finance
BNP Paribas CEO says EU likely to delay trading book capital rules
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 28, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 28, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
BNP Paribas CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe expects the EU to delay trading book capital rules by three years, affecting banks' capital strategies.
By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS (Reuters) -The European Union is likely to postpone new capital requirements for banks' trading operations for about three years, BNP Paribas Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe told analysts on Tuesday.
The European Union is set to delay the new rules - called the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book - as it waits for more clarity about the U.S. administration's plans to deregulate its financial sector, sources told Reuters in May.
"Probably you know, that there are conversations at the level of the European Commission just to neutralise this FRTB for probably a period of three years," Bonnafe said during a conference call following the bank's third-quarter results.
"This is not done, but there is a certain probability, probably more than 50%, that one way or the other, that FRTB is going to be neutralised for a certain period of time," he added.
The FRTB implementation date has already been pushed back several times, from early 2025 to early 2026 and then to early 2027.
Bonnafe said BNP Paribas' core capital is running ahead of plan, with a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio around 12.5%, and the bank does not expect end-2025 targets to be revised down regardless of the rule change timeline.
Even if the FRTB rules are implemented as scheduled, BNP Paribas expects to maintain its capital position through increased profitability, Bonnafe said.
(Reporting by Mathieu RosemainEditing by Mark Potter)
The FRTB is a set of international banking regulations aimed at improving the capital requirements for banks' trading activities, ensuring they hold sufficient capital to cover market risks.
The CET1 ratio is a measure of a bank's core equity capital compared to its total risk-weighted assets, indicating its financial strength and ability to absorb losses.
Capital requirements are regulatory standards that determine the minimum amount of capital a bank must hold to ensure its stability and solvency, protecting depositors and the financial system.
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