Overview

CRD IV is the European Commission's proposal for a new pan-European set of regulatory capital, liquidity and supervisory rules for banks and investment firms. For most banks, the major impact of the legislation will be higher capital requirements, which will be progressively introduced from 2013 to 2019. The European Commission estimates that this will ultimately result in EU banks and other investment firms needing to hold an extra €460 billion of "Core Equity Tier 1" capital.

CRD IV replaces the existing Capital Requirements Directive. It is part of a package of European measures intended to rebuild confidence in the robustness of the EU financial sector. This note summarises some of the key issues for private equity.