Minimum capital requirements

Following the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC signed off on proposed measures to ease resolution planning requirements and tailor supervisory standards for foreign banking companies operating in the U.S.

Regulators and lawmakers go to great lengths to avoid using the term for reforms in the Trump era, but its meaning is consistent with recent steps to revise and clarify the post-crisis regime.

Under the plan, large banks would have to hold additional capital if they purchase another bank's "loss-absorbing" debt that is used to contain fallout from a collapse.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is planning on finalizing its proposed capital requirements for the government-sponsored enterprises this summer, the agency's acting director said Wednesday.

Community bankers and state regulators want the FDIC and other agencies to rethink their approach to a simplified capital ratio for smaller institutions.

The Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to keep the countercyclical capital buffer at its current level of zero, ending some speculation that the board could be looking at a possible increase.

The central bank is limiting the use of its qualitative objection in this year’s stress tests, the agency announced Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve said it wants to discourage banks from using returns on Fed account balances as a business model.

Addressing lawmakers for the second straight day, the Fed chairman defended his agency’s refinements to the post-crisis regime.

The Federal Reserve’s top regulator, who assumed the chairmanship of the international board in November, said the FSB should explain the rationale behind its financial benchmarks while establishing new ones to combat emerging threats.

The combined bank will move into a more demanding supervisory class under the Fed’s regime, but analysts also see a regulatory upside from the deal.

The central bank has drawn mixed reviews for new stress test scenarios and changes to how much banks know about the test beforehand. Its top regulatory official says the enhancements help the post-crisis regime evolve.

The exemption was included in a suite of other changes unveiled to provide greater transparency to the Fed's stress testing regime.

Banks say regulatory relief efforts should go even further, while public interest groups — and even one of the Fed’s regional offices — say the proposals to roll back supervisory standards go too far.

Three groups in North Carolina have scrapped plans to start banks because of difficulty raising capital, among other reasons.

The revised recommendations are one of the last remaining pieces left to finish in the Basel III capital accords.

The Dodd-Frank Act gave the central bank authority to set capital requirements for insurance companies that own a federally insured bank, as well as those determined to be systemically important.

From stress tests to tailoring the Dodd-Frank Act to the Volcker Rule, the banking agencies have a number of important proposals to finalize in the coming year. But there are several potential obstacles that could throw those plans off track.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell demurs on regulatory relief for largest banks while saying he is “open” to countercyclical buffer.

The alternative is waiting for state and federal regulators to take steps that could disrupt the flow of capital and put some firms out of business.