Authorities have raised capital requirements by implementing the EU legislation, and in several instances going somewhat beyond this by taking advantage of the room for national discretion included in the directives. Perhaps even more importantly, bank themselves have taken steps to become substantially better capitalised, often going well beyond the regulatory minimum requirement.
In recent surveys, Danish banks stand out as top performers in a European context when it comes to early compliance with fully phased-in stricter minimum rules for capital. This is wise. The largest Danish bank did very recently raise new additional tier 1 capital at a fairly low price, a price which was lower than recent, similar issuances by other EU banks.