BlockBeats News, March 19th, the Federal Reserve on Thursday released a proposal to relax capital requirements for Wall Street’s largest financial institutions, a move that could free up tens of billions of dollars for lending, stock buybacks, and dividend payouts. Michelle Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said in a statement: “These reforms will strengthen our overall capital framework, which will remain robust under the new regulatory framework.” This proposal will be subject to a 90-day public comment period before being finalized. The proposals were developed by Fed officials, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Federal Reserve Board will formally vote on the plan on Thursday. Officials describe the plan as part of capital simplification. If these plans are ultimately adopted, along with relaxed enhanced supplementary leverage ratio requirements and reforms to stress testing, they would represent the largest overhaul of bank capital rules since similar measures were introduced following the global financial crisis of 2008. According to a Fed memo, when taken together, these proposals are expected to result in a “modest reduction” in capital requirements for large banks. (Wall Street.cn)
