EU takes on US in tit-for-tat bank row

The EU will require big foreign banks operating in Europe to set aside billions in reserve funds in a tit-for-tat move against the United States that could also affect post-Brexit Britain, according to a draft proposal seen by AFP.
The European Commission, the executive body of the 28-nation European Union, will tomorrow announce a series of new banking regulations that will include the new requirement.
"We are actually mirroring what the US has already done," a European source said in advance of the announcement of the new capital requirements.
The US in 2014 angered Brussels when it suddenly required major European banks -- such as Germany's Deutsche Bank -- to park billions in the United States in case problems at their subsidiaries threatened to involve the US taxpayer.

The EU warned at the time that these extra costs risked sparking a protectionist reaction in Europe.
If approved into EU law, the new measure would require major US banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to set aside extra capital so that their operations in Europe could be wound up separately if needed.

The Financial Times, which first reported the proposal, said that this would force the banks to raise billions of euros to keep operating in Europe.
The rules could also pose a threat to the city of London after the UK completes its Brexit divorce from the EU.

A person familiar with the thinking of US banks said the proposal would result in a "more onerous process to do business in the EU", as well as some additional capital set-asides.
One of the questions is "how this broader trend of this tit-for-tat between national jurisdictions will play out", said this person. "This could be the first of many similar issues."
"The national jurisdictions are pushing back against much of the international process right now," said the person familiar with US banks. "Definitely the national governments are heavily involved in protecting their institutions."
Large US banks have based their European headquarters in London and could be forced to relocate key operations to other European cities due to Brexit.

Depending on how the Brussels capital requirements rule is set, banks could be forced to establish holding companies in one or more European countries and then to hold capital for each of these entities.
The measure by the EU comes amid spats with the US over Apple and Deutsche Bank and squabbles about Airbus and Boeing and will exacerbate further the strains in US-European economic relations.