Banking agencies are likely to advance several potentially major regulations in the final six months of 2024, although the timing on some of the proposals under consideration remains uncertain, ABA policy experts said today at the Risk and Compliance Conference in Seattle. During a panel discussion, ABA EVP Hugh Carney noted that one major rule regulators are pushing to finalize concerns the implementation of the Basel III endgame capital proposal. However, the level of pushback that the regulators have received from various interest groups shows that the proposal is not just a banking issue, but a national economic issue, which may make a quick resolution of the rule tricky, he said.
“The biggest issue is the impact on bank customers,” Carney said. “If you look at the comment file [for the proposed rule], it’s full of comment letters from bank customers, whether it is small businesses concerned that their risk weights are penalized for not having a credit rating, farmers concerned that they won’t be able to hedge their risks and therefore there will be higher food prices, and even social justice groups concerned about first-time and minority homebuyers.” He also noted that regulators are exploring new liquidity regulations in response to last year’s bank failures, including one that would expand the scope of the liquidity deposit ratio.
ABA EVP Ginny O’Neill said the CFPB will likely continue its attacks on so-called “junk fees,” including possibly finalizing rules on fees for overdraft services and for non-sufficient fund representment. “I think we’ll take a closer look at what they’re doing there because, as we noted in comments, they far exceeded their authority,” she said.
