The tightening up of the Basel III rules on bank capital (dubbed "Basel IV" by bankers due to the stringent requirements) will hit European banks the hardest, reports the FT. The deal to endorse the reform package agreed on Thursday will see the banks forced to increase their capital due to limits on how much the biggest banks can diverge from regulators' risk calculations for assets such as mortgages.  Official estimates are for an average increase in minimum capital of 12.9 per cent for EU banks. Much of the reform package will not take full effect until 2027 however.

The IMF has called on China's banks to strengthen their capital buffers over and above that required by the Basel III rules, warning that a "large and growing debt overhang" makes the Chinese economy vulnerable to shocks. The IMF stress tested 33 Chinese banks and found 27 of them under-capitalised relative to what would be needed in a "high stress scenario" (although it found the big four state owned lenders to be adequately capitalised). Santander has poached Barclays' group head of innovation, Michael Harte, to become the next chief operating officer of its UK business. In addition, he will take joint responsibility, with Sigga Sigurdardottir, for customer and innovation services to lead the digital transformation of the bank, Finextra reports. Harte comes to Santander after nearly four years at Barclays, first as chief operations and technology officer and then group head of innovation. He was chief information officer at Commonwealth Bank of Australia from 2006, overseeing the A$1.5 billion six-year programme to replace the bank's legacy technology with a new real-time core banking system.  Harte also held tech roles at Citigroup and PNC Financial Services. One of the biggest payday lenders in the US has floated on the stock exchange with a valuation of US$620 million, reports the FT. The paper describes the move by Curo Group as "cashing in on mounting hopes that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress with ease regulatory restrictions on the sector". Curo targets "underbanked" consumers in the States. Under the Obama administration, a crackdown on the sector was in the works, with plans for lenders to have to assess whether prospective lenders could afford the repayments before finalising loans. Those planned regulations are now expected to be quashed. Shares in US online lender Lending Club dropped to a record low as it cut guidance for profits, reports the FT. The lender has struggled to overcome the effects of a governance scandal, and is battling to keep big investors buying loans. CEO Scott Sanborn said the last 18 months had been among the most challenging of his career, but he told investors to focus on the factors in the US that would be driving business to the platform, such as flat household incomes and rising costs for healthcare and education.   A flaw in