LONDON (Reuters) - The world's top banks could count surplus capital towards their new buffers of special bonds that could be called on in a crisis to shield taxpayers, two sources familiar with the plans said.
The proposed rule is a crucial piece in a jigsaw of tougher rules for making banks safer after governments had to shore up lenders during the 2007-09 financial crisis.
The new buffers, known as "gone concern loss absorption capacity" or GLAC, are seen by regulators as essential to stopping the world's biggest lenders from being "too big to fail".
The measure is being drafted by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the regulatory task force of the Group of 20 economies, and at meetings this week there was progress on core elements of a deal being put together for the G20 summit in November to endorse.
Banks worry they would have to meet all their GLAC requirement by issuing subordinated debt that can be converted into equity, an approach some U.S. banking supervisors want.
But in order to secure a deal the regulators have agreed to a more flexible approach to cater for differences in banking models across the world.
Capital banks hold above minimum global requirements could be counted towards the GLAC figure, the sources said on Thursday.
"The aim is to think of it as one stack rather than separate capital and GLAC," one source said
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Steve Slater)