Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, has called for a simpler, more transparent approach to bank capital requirements - saying he would prefer more emphasis to be put on "the ratio of capital to unweighted assets".

Plosser told an audience at the Boston College Carroll School of Management that he has "long advocated simple, robust rules and transparent communications" in the context of monetary policy - and that "the same approach applies to the design of