APRA chairman John Laker has defended the regulator's implementation of the Basel III rules, saying that APRA "sees no case to distance Australia from the reforms".Writing in APRA's annual report, Laker said that "the rubber is now hitting the road" on the Basel III reforms."Although the Australian banking system has to date weathered the global financial crisis much better than most [of its] peers, APRA sees no case to distance Australia from the reforms," Laker said.He added that Australia's major banks "are global citizens, and investors and market analysts judge them accordingly. It is entirely appropriate, in APRA's view, that they at least meet minimum global standards."He also defended APRA's decision to take a more conservative approach to some capital issues than that allowed under Basel III. While this produced lower "headline" capital ratios than other jurisdictions, there was no evidence that it was penalising the banks in raising capital, accessing funds or maintaining their credit ratings.His comments come as ANZ's CEO, Mike Smith, is arguing to delay implementation of Basel III. In an interview with Business Spectator published on Friday, Smith was quoted referring with apparent sarcasm to APRA's commitment to implementing Basel III Rules."[Of] the 27 countries who've signed up to Basel III, I think only about seven or so have actually implemented any sort of draft rules." he was quoted as saying."Of course, we're very lucky that APRA has been the pioneer in this, and sort of wants to go ahead of anyone else. I don't get that one at all.""When you look at Basel II, two countries have actually not implemented it at all who signed up for it; one of which is the United States and the other is China. Now, you know, if they haven't done Basel II, you know, what chance does [Basel III have]?"Smith described the people pushing through Basel III's implementation - presumably the leadership of APRA - as "zealots, almost, in terms of how this is actually imposed".Smith's comments follow a speech in late October where he declared that it was "difficult to see why we would seek to lead the world in implementation of these [Basel III] proposals at a time when the global consensus on Basel III is arguably fragmenting".