HFS Committee Republicans Urge Regulators to Withdraw Basel III Proposal

Republican members of the Financial Services Committee urged banking regulators to withdraw their Basel III Endgame proposal. The legislators argued that, as issued, the proposal "lacks justification, lacks rigorous quantitative analysis, and is procedurally flawed."

In a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, Acting Director of the OCC Michael Hsu and FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg, the Committee Republicans said that there has been little transparency with Congress or the American people as to when or how the agencies will (i) release information collected from banks or (ii) seek comment on whatever future analysis the agencies conduct using that information. They also argued that there is no clear bipartisan support on the Federal Reserve Board or among the Board of the FDIC for the proposal.

The legislators recommended that any new proposal be "supported by rigorous quantitative analysis, be issued first as an advance notice of public rulemaking, and then proceed through the rulemaking process with transparency that has been lacking with the existing proposal."