Australia banks to ride out new global rules-report

* Access to debt markets main focus

* Margins may slip as costs rise

* Australian banks have enough capital to meet new rules

SYDNEY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - New global bank rules will have little impact on the ability of Australian banks to lend and are unlikely to result in new minimum capital requirements, a report by JPMorgan and Fujitsu said.

The report examined the requirement to set aside additional capital as a 'countercyclical credit buffer' at times of rapid credit growth and said the buffer would be needed in a modest way only from 2014.

The country's top four banks -- National Australia Bank (NAB.AX), Commonwealth bank of Australia (CBA.AX), Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) emerged from the global financial crisis stronger than most global peers.

They now hold record levels of capital -- tier I of about 9 percent or more and are adding more with soaring profits -- putting them in a strong position to meet new regulations. As a result, they are not expected to have to raise equity to meet new rules.

"There is still a lot of water to flow under the regulatory bridge. Overall, the access to debt at points of stress in the cycle will remain paramount, as opposed to access to equity," JPMorgan analyst Scott Manning said.

Central bank and regulatory officials agreed tougher new global bank capital rules on Tuesday but will keep investors on tenterhooks about the details until Sunday when formal endorsement is expected. [ID:nLDE6861DD].

The Basel Committee ended its meeting with recommendations on how much extra capital banks will have to hold in future to avoid governments having to bail out the sector in the next crisis, a source familiar with the process said.

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BREAKINGVIEWS on Basel's capital buffer plan [ID:nLDE6860SJ]

Q&A on Basel III rules finalisation [ID:nLDE6850Q0]

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The so-called Basel III reform is the cornerstone of the world's response to the financial crisis and endorsement by Basel's oversight body will pave the way for the G20 meeting in November to give their seal of approval.

Germany's Die Zeit newspaper reported on Monday that a draft of the package showed banks would have to hold Tier 1 capital of 9 percent, including a 3 percent so-called "conservation buffer".

But the challenge for Australia's banks is access to debt and protecting margins as funding costs rise and the need to hold higher capital turns a drag, the report said.

A poor savings rate pushes them to tap offshore debt markets for a quarter of their annual funding needs or about $150 billion collectively, thus making them and their margins vulnerable to overseas risks. (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by Ed Davies)