Testifying on ABA’s behalf before a House Financial Services subcommittee yesterday, a midsize bank executive emphasized the importance of proposed legislation that would remove arbitrary asset thresholds that impose limits on growth.

Speaking to the annual monetary policy conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., today, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen offered a broad defense of the post-financial crisis regulatory framework but embraced “appropriate adjustments” as the economy and global landscape evolve.

The Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC today issued a proposed rule that would pause the transition to the Basel III capital framework for banks not using the Basel advanced approaches.

A federal judge yesterday heard oral arguments in the lawsuit filed by ABA and Seattle-based Washington Federal seeking over $1.1 billion in damages resulting from the United States’ improper reduction in dividends paid to Federal Reserve member banks.

Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee today, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin outlined his recommendations for financial reform, including tailoring capital requirements, reducing regulatory overlap, remedying the Volcker Rule and making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more accountable.

Regulations based on asset size are “inappropriate and needlessly burdensome” for many banks with non-complex business models, and ultimately lead to higher costs and fewer choices for consumers, ABA said in written testimony submitted for a Senate Banking Committee hearing on regulatory relief for midsize and regional banks today.

Memphis-based First Horizon enjoys strong and steady growth. Its CEO wants a regulatory environment that helps all banks do the same.

Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) yesterday introduced a bill that would provide relief from the Dodd-Frank Act stress tests, reducing the mandated frequency of testing for all institutions and removing many from the stress test process altogether.

As part of the banking industry’s continuing response to President Trump’s executive order outlining “core principles” for financial regulation, the American Bankers Association in a white paper today urged federal regulators to make changes to the current stress testing framework for large and midsize banks.

Noting that the U.S. financial system is “without a doubt far stronger” than it was before the crisis, Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell said today that the collective weight of post-financial crisis rules are too complex and that some of them are burdensome and may not be needed at all -- especially in a context of sluggish productivity and GDP growth that calls for banks to “devote as much of their resources as possible to supporting economic growth.”