Basel III additional capital buffers are: a mandatory capital conservation buffer of 2.5% and a discretionary counter-cyclical buffer.

FORBES: Basel Barriers: How capital requirements would impede progress in the sovereign debt crisis

They will have to add to that a "counter cyclical" capital conservation buffer of 2.5%, meaning capital reserves will in the coming years have to represent 7% of their loans and investments.

FORBES

As part of the package of new standards, banks will be required to increase their minimum common equity requirement from 2% to 4.5%, and will additionally have to hold a capital conservation buffer of 2.5%, "to withstand future periods of stress, " the Basel Committee said in a press release.

FORBES