The priority for big bank treasurers is shifting from changes to regulatory capital requirements, which have preoccupied them for several years, to preparations for the introduction of the net stable funding ratio in 2018.From the start of that year banks will have to demonstrate that long-term assets are financed with at least a minimum of stable funding. Stable funding is the portion of an ADI's capital and liabilities expected to be a reliable source of funds over a one-year time horizon.NSFR will force banks to rely more on deposits (especially term deposits) and long-term wholesale funding as funding sources, and less on short-term wholesale funding.The approach of NSFR is one reason why commentators are saying there will be an intensification of competition for deposits.The new rule will apply to only a small number of large authorised deposit-taking institutions (the liquidity coverage ratio rule applies to 15 ADIs).Speaking at the Citi Investment Conference in Sydney yesterday, Westpac Treasurer Curt Zuber said "the sands were shifting". While there were still issues around capital for regulators to finalise, the emphasis had been moving away from the "more capital" position, he said.Zuber said the challenge with NSFR was that "dollars of loans were higher than dollars of deposits."He said he expected Westpac would comply comfortably.He said one area where banks had to become more creative was in the way they used superannuation deposits coming through their wealth management businesses."We are all looking at how we can get better funding value through deposits, specifically superannuation," he said.Asked about the capacity of the wholesale market to provide more long-term funding, Zuber said: "We have been taking a sustainable approach. There is a capacity we feel comfortable with."It would be foolish to think we can grow at five per cent to ten per cent each year."ANZ treasurer Rick Moscati said: "I don't think the solution is to do more term wholesale. The balance sheet structure has to adapt. We are doing that with capital and funding is similar."There are NSFR-intensive assets, such as physical gold."Looking at the next three to five years, we don't see a fall in lending because of NSFR unless the regulators want to push it to an extreme level."It does steer you to consumer finance because mortgages have a 65 per cent NSFR weighting, while commercial finance has a higher weighting."Moscati said the local banks would have difficulty meeting a requirement from APRA that their NSFR levels be in the top quartile globally (which is the target for tier one common equity).