John Vickers: Banks should carry twice existing level of core tier one equity capital.

The head of the UK body set up to introduce reforms in the wake of the financial crisis has recommended that all banks should be forced to carry core tier one equity capital of 20% compared with 10% under existing guidelines.

If John Vickers’s recommendation is adopted in future then it would mean Irish banks would have to raise further capital to meet the requirements.

Mr Vickers made his comments to the Financial Times ahead of a speech to the Regulatory Policy Institute yesterday.