18 June 2012 7:21am

International industry lobbying for a watering down of the liquidity targets proposed for banks may be successful, with both rumoured and confirmed evidence of a change of heart on the part of regulators.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that regulators may allow banks to count gold and some equity holdings as liquid assets on top of cash and government bonds.

In some jurisdictions (and, in theory, in almost all) a new liquidity coverage ratio will come into force in coming years. In Australia, it will apply from the beginning of 2015.

A bank will be...