On the capital side, the emphasis has been on increasing the loss absorbency of bank balance sheets by raising the quality and quantity of capital (Figure 1) Figure 1 Basel III versus Basel II capital requirements (percent of risk weighted assets)  Source: RBNZ  The Basel III standards for increased liquidity buffers are being less uniformly adopted than the new capital standards.
This is perhaps not surprising given this is the first attempt at cross border coordination of bank liquidity requirements. It also reflects significant country differences in the liquidity of sovereign debt markets – the liquid asset of choice by the Basel Committee – and in approaches to liquidity provision by Central Banks.