The Basel Committee of global banking regulators published on Thursday the final text of Basel III, which will force banks to triple the amount of capital held to withstand shocks.

World leaders agreed in Seoul last month the new rules would be phased in between 2013 and 2018.

The transition period provides banks with ample time to move to the new standards in a manner consistent with a sound economic recovery, while raising the safeguards in the system against economic or financial shocks, Basel Committee Chairman, Nout Wellink, said in a statement.

The final text confirms all key ratios and their timing, as expected.

The text has been fleshed out in some areas, particularly as regards the new and first set of global liquidity standards to allow countries like Denmark and Australia more flexibility.

These and a few other countries have low government debt or small corporate bond markets, making it hard for them to comply with Basel III requirements that the bulk of new liquidity buffers must be in the form of highly rated sovereign debt.

The tweaked rules would allow Denmark and Australia to hold sovereign debt from other countries or use greater amounts of covered bonds, subject to higher haircuts or discounts.

Basel III will require banks to increase their Tier 1 capital ratio to 7 percent, which includes a capital conservation buffer.

The committee said its study showed that as of December 2009, if the new Basel III rules were applied, there would have been a shortfall of 577 billion euros for the world's top 94 internationally active banks.

(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Susan Fenton)

Australia