The European Union may push back the deadline for applying tougher Basel bank-capital rules for as long as a year after warnings from lenders that pressing ahead with the original timetable may drive up their costs, according to three people familiar with the talks.

EU lawmakers and officials, facing a Jan. 1 international deadline for incorporating the rules into law, held the latest in a series of meetings today on how the bloc should implement the Basel measures, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private.

Representatives of Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and legislators from the European Parliament, discussed whether the start date for applying the measures within the bloc could be delayed beyond the beginning of next year, said the people. Alternative dates being considered include July 1, 2013, or Jan. 1, 2014, one of the people said.