In this context, I very much welcome the fact that the European Commission was one of the first, at the international level, to take the initiative in actively implementing Basel III by issuing a fully-fledged EU capital requirements regulation and directive on 20 July 2011. In the coming months the ECB will issue its official Opinion on this regulation by the Commission.
But even then, a likely outcome is that the United Kingdom will end up having looser trade ties with the EU than 4/8  BIS central bankers' speeches  Norway, which is – lest we forget – a member of the European Economic Area, or Switzerland, which has concluded bilateral treaties with the EU.