SIFIs

The head of the international Basel Committee on Banking Supervision underscored the importance of international consistency in banking standards in comments Wednesday before the European Parliament.

A top Wells Fargo executive and a former employee painted very different pictures of the culture and oversight at the San Francisco bank during a hearing by a California Assembly committee on Tuesday that probed the opening of 2 million phony accounts.

The regulations added in the wake of the financial crisis have made the system safer, but it's time to pause on new rules and find ways to improve what's been put in place already, according to the top executives at some of the largest banks.

WASHINGTON — The Basel Committee will move forward with its final regulatory capital rules by yearend despite threats from the European Union that its members may choose to ignore the standards out of fear that they might stifle growth.

Current proposals about what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that still focus on a government-backed solution are misdirected.

As the financial world comes to grips with the news that the European Union has no intention of implementing the final elements of Basel III, observers are scrambling to figure out how much impact the split could have on U.S. banks and global financial stability.

Fourteen senators including Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling for the Justice Department to investigate possible criminal wrongdoing by senior executives at Wells Fargo.

In a stunning move, the European Union signaled that it will not follow the Basel Committee's recommendations on standardized credit, operational and market risk rules, citing concerns that the direction of the proposals would unduly increase capital requirements and stifle economic growth.

Last week's Senate hearing was bad for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, but Thursday's House appearance was even worse. Lawmakers moved beyond calling for Stumpf to resign, and said Wells Fargo should be broken up and Stumpf should go to jail.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testified for the second consecutive year on regulatory issues, touching on the Fed's stress tests, banks' ownership of commodities, the fate of Wells Fargo and whether the central bank acts in a political fashion.