No decision has yet been made as to whether the more stringent capital requirement to be applied to large U.S. banking firms that are not on the eventual list of global systemic banks will be in the form of a quantitative surcharge.
In the pay area, the increase in private sector pay this year, on foot of the new social partnership agreement, will be of the order of 3½ per cent, assuming no upward drift. This is close to that in the euro area generally. However, public sector pay increases will be significantly higher than 3½ per cent.