The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee announced on the 7th a proposal to ease leverage rules that domestic banks must maintain as a buffer for emergencies, enabling a reduction in capital requirements. Under the proposal, the countercyclical capital buffer would be removed from the leverage ratio, and the proportion of other capital buffers that can be released would be expanded. This is expected to lower the leverage ratio requirement for major banks by 0.2 percentage points from just over 3 percent currently. The FPC commented that the framework would become more balanced and effective, but some members expressed concern that it could lead to an undesirable increase in market-based leverage. Jeannie Watson of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe issued a statement welcoming the FPC and the Prudential Regulation Authority's consultation, saying that more substantial measures rather than incremental adjustments are needed to address excessive regulation. The Bank of England had already lowered the core capital ratio requirement from 14 percent to 13 percent last December, and this review also follows the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's easing of leverage rules in November last year.