There may be more bad news on the way for borrowers, according to reports. The ABC's program The Business, for instance, has reported that the global banking prudential regulator, the Basel Committee, is getting ready to announce new capital adequacy rules for banks in the next few weeks.But that is dependant on the committee placating the United States regulators who want to throw out the risk-based models that allow some banks to determine their own capital needs. Already the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has forced the Big Four to put aside more capital against their housing loans, leaving them less money to lend, and more willing to bump up home loan rates by 0.15-0.20 per cent over the past fortnight, on top of increases to investor loans earlier in the year. However, the changes being discussed by the Basel Committee could potentially force Australian banks to set aside even more capital, the ABC said. Inside the Basel Committee the US is leading a drive to do away with the system that allowed so-called "advanced banks", including Australia's Big Four, to determine their own risk weights on their loan books and therefore how much money they should reserve for a crisis. The US does not trust the banks' internal risk models and wants a more simple leverage ratio to apply instead. But the question of who bears that higher cost — shareholders or customer — is another matter. Just last week, the outgoing ANZ chief executive Mike Smith conceded that its ROE target of 16 per cent was "a bridge too far." "Yes, you can increase capital and you can make the banks safer," Mr Smith said. "But somebody has to pay for it and only two people can — the shareholders or the customers — and what we have tried to do is balance that." These views were echoed by Philipp Hildebrand, who is vice chairman of BlackRock and previously a deputy of Chairman Mark Carney at the Basel-based Financial Stability Board. He told a conference in London that regulators should pause to allow the industry to adapt to rules already on the books, Bloomberg reports. "Banks continue to live in an atmosphere of fear," he said. "If this persists they will become hesitant to make long-term loans because they worry what new capital requirements and other regulations will hit them down the road."