SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's banking regulator will ask banks to keep aside more capital against their housing portfolio but does not expect overall ratios to rise beyond the existing benchmark of 10.5 percent, Chairman Wayne Byres said on Friday.
Byres said housing was an obvious place to boost capital ratios although there will not be a "dramatic increase."
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) had tightened lending rules for mortgage debt earlier this year to help reduce banks' exposure to the country's red-hot property market in the event of a sharp correction.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole and Swati Pandey; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
