A top Federal Reserve official has said the central bank will soon cut capital requirements for big banks as it eases protections that were designed to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
The moves, announced on Thursday in a speech by Fed vice-chair for supervision Michelle Bowman, intensify the push by US regulators to loosen restrictions on Wall Street banks to encourage them to boost lending and regain market share lost to private credit groups.
Bowman, who President Donald Trump appointed last year as the central bank’s top banking regulator, said its plans to adopt the Basel III Endgame rules agreed by global regulators would lead to a “small increase” in capital requirements for US banks but would be more than offset by other reforms.