15. The Impact of Regulatory Capital Regulation on Balance Sheet Structure, Intermediation Cost and Growth

This chapter addresses how new Basel III metrics change the Basel II-adjusted risk/return filtering, transforming the asset-side structure of banks’ balance sheets. The authors examine this complex problem by disentangling the effect of every set of causes, taking into account expected future rules. The authors first recall the main novelties of the Basel III package as implemented in the European Union before they turn to impact assessments, trying to answer the question of what definite constraint is binding at the moment, and finally offering some remediation before concluding.