Is this just the US not wanting to provide stronger risk management or are they in fact correct that implementation would reduce capital requirements.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE 2-US says to delay Basel bank rule proposalFri Apr 29, 2005 07:10 PM ET(Recasts, adds industry official quote)By Mark FelsenthalWASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulators said on Friday they will delay publication of a proposed regulation implementing the Basel II bank rules to better analyze how the global bank safety accord affects U.S. banks.Regulators said data they have gathered suggest Basel II rules would affect U.S. banks differently and could substantially lower capital requirements for some large institutions."The QIS4 (fourth quantitative impact study) submissions evidence material reductions in the aggregate minimum required capital for the QIS4 participant population and significant dispersion of results across institutions and portfolio types," the regulatory agencies said.U.S. bank supervisors had intended to publish proposed new rules for institutions implementing the Basel II accord at mid-year 2005. But the impact study -- a dry run of the rule among the institutions that will be required to follow the new rules -- has raised the need for additional analysis, they said."The agencies agreed to issue the NPR (notice of proposed rulemaking) at the earliest possible date after considering issues raised by the QIS4," the agencies said.U.S. banks are supervised by the Federal Reserve, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of Thrift Supervision.The delay could cause the 2008 implementation of the Basel II accord to slip, the agencies said."The agencies continue to target the existing implementation timeline for Basel II. However, the additional work noted above may cause the agencies to revisit this timeline," the U.S. regulators said.A bank industry official praised the decision to delay, saying U.S. banks have questions about the accord and had been concerned it might be put into effect before its impact was fully understood."We have been hearing from a number of our banks that there's a lot of uncertainty about the Basel II rules," said Robert Strand, a senior economist for the American Bankers Association.The Basel Accord aims to update an earlier bank risk management system in force since 1988. International bank regulators agreed to the terms of the new rules last summer and the accord is scheduled to be phased in from 2007 to 2008.U.S. regulators have proposed that the new capital standards would be required of only the largest or most internationally active depositories, while others could choose to opt in.