A half-dozen trade groups representing Wall Street firms are telling US regulators that they should take another stab at proposing sweeping bank capital rules.
(Bloomberg) — A half-dozen trade groups representing Wall Street firms are telling US regulators that they should take another stab at proposing sweeping bank capital rules.
The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in July unveiled plans to impose stiffer capital mandates on large banks, forcing them to thicken their cushions to absorb unexpected losses.
But the groups, including the Bank Policy Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday that the package should be proposed anew because the rules allegedly violate law by relying on data and analyses that the agencies haven’t made publicly available. They want the agencies to produce any missing material.
“This reliance on non-public information violates clear requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act that agencies must publicly disclose the data and analyses on which their rulemaking is based,” the organizations wrote in a letter to the three regulators.
The American Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), and the Institute of International Bankers also signed the letter.
The FDIC and the Fed declined to comment. The OCC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tuesday’s letter is one of the first steps in the industry’s fight against the capital rules, which banks have said will make them less competitive.
The US measures are tied to Basel III, an international regulatory agreement that began more than a decade ago in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, followed by First Republic Bank’s collapse in May underescored the importance of the overhaul.
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