Between 2008 and 2011, US banks improved their leverage ratio6 by 1.6 percentage points from 7.2 to 8.8%. The response in the euro area was more sluggish.
And I would also like to use this opportunity to convince you that these measures are really necessary. Despite being a significant improvement over the previous accord, Basel II has shown to still contain some significant weaknesses and shortcomings. Of many of these we were aware, but we were not able to adequately address them.