After long and sometimes painful negotiations, which stress-tested the personal relationships between many countries’ central bankers and regulators to the limit, the Basel Committee laid a long-expected egg in December. Described as a package that finalises the post-2008 reforms to the global regime for bank capital, it brings to an end the process known as Basel III.

Bankers have dubbed the result “Basel IV”, arguing that the final package contains many new and more burdensome requirements. But the committee is adamant that the new rules should be regarded as part and parcel of the reform program begun in 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis. Basel IV may come one day, but this is not it, they insist.