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The US is finalising another round of global bank regulations. That means it’s time for the best (and worst!) regulatory-pressure campaigns money can buy.
Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell assured Congress this week there will be “broad and material changes” in proposed bank capital rules — known by the cheesy name “Basel III Endgame” — by the end of this year. This shouldn’t be a shocking development, as Powell expressed concern about the potential downsides of the proposal when it was first released.
But today Powell denied the Fed was considering withdrawing the rule, which is the way some lobbyists Fed-watchers initially interpreted his comments. Bank of America, for example, highlighted the word “scrapped”. That term appears to have been used by a member of the House, not Powell himself.
Industry opposition is normal and expected any time US regulators propose tougher rules, of course.
This time around there’s been notable pushback from lawmakers as well. To be fair, the original Basel III Endgame proposal was tough; in his statement last year, Powell noted it “exceeds what is required by the Basel agreement”. And it isn’t only the banking industry that’s pushed back.
The strangest/funniest pushback has come from the banking industry, though. We saw this online yesterday (h/t @quantian1):
. . . “97% of the public agrees” that Basel III Endgame is “bad for working Americans”?
What does that even mean? It’s more likely 97 per cent of the American public agrees that Basel III Endgame is a superhero film.
So we did what any annoying blogger self-respecting reporter would do and emailed the organisation to ask for a source.
Unsurprisingly, the Bank Policy Institute is a US trade group representing banks. Jamie Dimon chairs the group’s board, which is basically a list of top executives from the biggest money-centre banks.
When asked about the source of the claim, a BPI flak directed us to a paper from Latham & Watkins. The law firm did an analysis of the public comments submitted about proposed Basel III Endgame rules, and found that 356 of 374 letters “opposed the Proposal in full or raised substantial concerns with parts of it.”
Public comments on a 316-page piece of financial regulation . . . surely representative of the American public itself, right?
