During the American Bankers Association’s Washington Summit today, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said he was encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent comments that there will likely be “broad and material” changes to the proposed Basel III endgame capital standards. Gottheimer is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who seek out legislative solutions both parties can support. Gottheimer told ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols during a Q&A there is a lot of bipartisan concern about the proposed Basel standards.
“The good news is the chairman signaled that unlike where things have been with the Vice Chair [for Supervision Michael Barr], I think they will take some control of this and make it clear that A) a lot of this was unnecessary, and B) it will really hurt our country and our competitiveness,” Gottheimer said. “And maybe the Europeans have different needs than we do, but forcing a round peg in a square hole on this doesn’t make any sense.”
