For example, we estimate that the large four banks could meet these new requirements by retaining about 70% of their expected profits over the proposed five-year transition period, with no need to slow down the rate at which they have grown their lending in recent years.
How We Got Here It is reasonable for the banking industry, and others, to ask why we have specifically proposed a minimum total capital requirement of 18% (or 17% for ‘non-systemically important’ banks). 13  Allow me to elaborate on how we arrived at this number. First, we began with the international standards set by the Basel Committee.