The new banking regulator taking shape in the UK is seeking powers to vary capital requirements on loans by banks to specific sectors such as commercial property and residential property.The proposals by the Financial Policy Committee (an offshoot of the Bank of England) serve as a reminder of the tenor of regulatory debates over the required level of capital for industry.The plans are also relevant to the National Australia Bank as it weighs up its options for either a sale or staged withdrawal from its Clydesdale Bank investment in the UK.On Friday, the Financial Policy Committee released an outline of advice to the UK Treasury on the powers of the committee, which will be legislated later this year.The FPC proposes that it have powers over three "tools" of what has become known as macroprudential policy. Two of these are relatively settled features of the global banking debate (at least from the regulatory point of view): the countercyclical capital buffer and the leverage ratio.The third is more innovative, with the FPC seeking powers to set "sectoral capital requirements".The committee argued in a summary of its advice that "sectoral capital requirements" - for instance, higher risk weights on property loans - "could enable the FPC to target risk building in specific areas more precisely than the aggregate countercyclical capital buffer."