Global bank regulators should scrap Basel capital rules and go back to using a straight-forward leverage ratio to reduce risk in the financial system, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board member Thomas Hoenig said.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which brings together regulators from 27 countries including the FDIC and three other U.S. agencies, revised global capital rules in 2010. The new regulations, which go into effect next year, will tighten the definition of what counts as capital, increase banks' minimum ratios and tighten how risk is defined in calculating those ratios.

The Basel rules have come under attack for increased complexity and allowing banks to game the system by playing with their risk models. Since 2004, the framework has allowed the largest banks to rely on proprietary models to determine how risky their assets are and how much capital they need. The 2010 revisions didn't change that risk-weighting method. A simple leverage ratio would measure equity versus total assets, ignoring whether they're risky or safe.