One area of the Pittsburgh agenda where there appears to be an emerging consensus is on the need for more capital in the global banking system. Some of the Group of 20 leaders, attending a summit in the US city, may differ on when capital regulations should be tightened, but there is agreement on the direction of change.

Indeed it seems odd in retrospect that when the Group of 10 central bank governors launched the Basel II exercise well over a decade ago, instructing the Basel committee to deliver an accord that allocated capital with greater sensitivity to risk, the total amount of capital in the system was assumed to be the same as under the Basel I accord of 1988. There was no debate about whether that was adequate in changed circumstances. The system had seemed stable for a decade, and that was good enough.