Barclays nears deal with regulators Barclays is close to a deal with regulators that would see it comply with a new regulatory leverage requirement by December next year, in a snub to former Bank of England governor Lord King, who had argued for an end-2013 deadline. People familiar with negotiations between the bank and the BoE's Prudential Regulation Authority unit said Barclays was likely to confirm the deal alongside annual results next Tuesday. Lord King, who chaired the PRA in his role as governor of the Bank of England up to his retirement last month, had made little secret of his distrust of Barclays ever since the financial crisis. He intervened to insist Bob Diamond be ejected as chief executive a year ago and has kept up the pressure on the bank ever since, convinced its balance sheet was too big and risky for the capital that supports it. The PRA said last month that two of the UK's top eight lenders - Barclays and Nationwide - fell short of a 3 per cent leverage ratio, which relates equity to overall assets, after stressing the number to factor in prospective losses and other expected charges. A 3 per cent minimum ratio is set to be introduced globally under the incoming Basel III rulebook, though banks would not have to comply with the 3 per cent minimum requirement for another five years. According to people familiar with the PRA's capital assessment, Lord King was among a handful of BoE officials who pushed for an expedited leverage ratio to be included in the exercise at the last minute. "This was Mervyn's little nuclear present to Barclays," said one person close to the process. He was determined to get them somehow before he left. The affair has triggered a poisonous three-way row between regulators, politicians and the two lenders that fell short of the ratio. On Tuesday, business secretary Vince Cable criticised the BoE's "capital Taliban" for holding back the UK's economic recovery through an excessively conservative regulatory framework. His remarks followed a month of bickering over the issue. Both Graham Beale, chief executive of Nationwide, and Antony Jenkins, his opposite number at Barclays, have suggested that complying with the 3 per cent ratio by the end of this year could constrain lending - comments that were in turn criticised by Lord King as aggressive lobbying. Nonetheless, two weeks ago Nationwide secured a 2015 deadline for complying with the ratio, widely seen as a valuable concession to a lender that has been a crucial supplier of mortgage finance at a delicate time for the economy. For Barclays, a 2014 deadline would force it to accelerate its original plan to meet the 3 per cent ratio by 2015, though bankers said it would be feasible without radical changes of strategy. "While 2014 is doable, 2013 would have meant one hell of a handbrake turn," said one person close to the process. Analysts have estimated Barclays" capital shortfall at up to £7bn. Bankers and policymakers say the arrival of Mark Carney as Lord King's replacement at the BoE has underpinned a less extreme view of bank capital. Under the European Union law that implements Basel III, all of the region's banks will be required to start disclosing their leverage ratios at the beginning of 2015, although the 3 per cent minimum will not become binding until at least 2018. Up to now, the ratio has been all but impossible for analysts to calculate because banks do not make public the necessary figures, so weaker banks have been able to escape scrutiny. With disclosure looming in 2015, many of them have been targeting that year for trying to reach the required ratio.