U.S. regulators won't hold banking companies to a Jan. 1 deadline they wrote into proposed rules for boosting the reserves lenders must hold against potential losses, they said today.

The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "do not expect that any of the proposed rules would become effective" at the start of next year, as they continue weighing views expressed during the comment period, they said in a joint statement.

The agencies are working "as expeditiously as possible" on rules proposed in June to align U.S. banks with standards set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The international accords set a Jan. 1 deadline for boosting capital requirements to guard against a repeat of the 2008 credit crisis. Most Basel committee member nations have yet to complete work on the rules.