It was also praised for imposing buffers against excessive lending.
These were established as buffers against the large-scale logging and farming operations that have destroyed swathes of the Amazon.
Bankers are particularly concerned about the criteria for capital buffers against securitized assets like mortgage-backed securities.
Though hundreds of smaller banks face extinction, big banks have thickened their buffers against loss by raising common equity.
For Mr. Chow, one of the buffers against hard economic times is gold's role in Chinese culture — a role that will not fade with fads or volatile markets.
In India, agricultural expansion would force crops into habitats like wetlands that act as important buffers against flooding and sea-level rise.
They also protect low-lying coastal communities -- and New Orleans, too -- from hurricanes by acting as buffers against storm surges and by absorbing high water.
"This could involve imposing limits on mortgage lending to potential homebuyers as a multiple of earnings, also demanding banks hold greater buffers against lending," says economist Howard Archer.
Banks did not (and still do not) need to carry buffers against the government bonds of a euro-zone country, be it Germany or Greece.
These programs should have never been labeled "entitlements"; they were conceived of and should be administered as buffers against poverty among the elderly.
Remaining issues include how to regulate derivatives trading, the extent of restrictions on banks investing their own money, and whether to require stronger buffers against unexpected losses.
