6  The counter-cyclical capital buffer may consist of Core Tier 1 capital or other capital than can completely absorb losses. The Basel Committee will specify what types of capital the banks can include at a later date. 7  Issuing bond is a less costly alternative for acquiring capital than issuing shares for tax reasons. Interest rate payments for bonds are made pre-tax while share dividends are paid from post-tax profits. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  The sum of the new capital regulations There are many new regulations and levels and it may be difficult to estimate what the banks’ total capital requirement will ultimately amount to. It we limit ourselves to looking at Core Tier 1 capital we can see that the new regulations mean that all banks will need to hold share capital and retained earnings amounting to at least 4.5 per cent of their risk-weighted assets. In addition there is the capital conservation buffer of 2.5 per cent and the counter-cyclical capital buffer of a maximum of 2.5 per cent. This means that in a situation where the countercyclical capital buffer is fully activated the banks will need Core Tier 1 capital amounting to at least 9.5 per cent, and this applies to all banks. There are also discussions about whether additional capital requirements should be placed on those banks that are considered to be systemically important. At present, no decision has been made on which banks this would be, nor on the levels that could apply.
Yves Mersch: Digital transformation - Europe's integrated market of tomorrow Speech by Mr Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Joint ECB and European Commission Conference "Into the future: Europe's digital integrated market", Frankfurt am Main, 31 January 2017. * * *  Introduction For over a decade the European Commission, the Eurosystem and the market have been working towards transforming what has up to now been a very fragmented financial market infrastructure in Europe into a more integrated one. This work is still ongoing and requires more effort. However, we are at a point now when progress has become tangible. In the first part of my speech, I will briefly take stock of where we stand, particularly with regard to the post-trade area. I will then address two areas where I still see gaps that are in the way of our achieving a truly integrated European financial market. The first area is securities issuance, the second instant payment settlement. In both these areas, digitalisation is opening up new opportunities, which requires action. We at the ECB stand ready to take action accordingly. Integration in the post-trade area Following the launch of T2S in summer 2015 and two further migration waves in 2016, the German market is due to migrate to T2S in less than a week’s time. This latest development is expected to bring a big increase in the volume of securities transactions being settled on the platform.