Federal Reserve Governor Bowman: Plans to Slightly Lower Capital Requirements for Large Banks

Odaily News Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Bowman said on Thursday that after revisions to a comprehensive bank capital rule, capital requirements for large banks will be slightly reduced. This is seen as a significant victory for Wall Street banks, which had successfully resisted earlier proposals to increase capital in the draft. Bowman outlined adjustments to the Basel rules and the Global Systemically Important Bank (GSIB) surcharge. These rules determine how much capital banks must set aside to absorb potential losses. She stated that through "reasonable calibration" of the existing rules, the overall capital requirements for large banks would be "slightly reduced." She noted that these adjustments would eliminate overlapping regulatory standards and better align capital requirements with the actual risks faced by banks, while also suggesting that the trend of continuously increasing bank loss-absorbing buffers in recent years had been misguided. (Jin10)