The Fed Should Hit Pause on Its Capital Endgame
Getting US bank rules right is far more important than getting them done.
What’s the rush?
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images North AmericaTime is tight for the Federal Reserve’s effort to redraw US bank capital rules, but they shouldn’t rush the job. The better course would be to take a step back and delay a set of proposals that have nowhere near enough support from the industry, politicians or even many regulators themselves.
Tuesday was the deadline for feedback on the rules, which are meant to implement for US banks the final post-2008 global standards, nicknamed the Basel III Endgame. But the version written by the Fed and other US regulators is tougher in many ways than what other countries are adopting. In turn, the complaints and objections from people, businesses, banks and pressure groups that have been filed to the Fed this month are much stiffer, too.