Wall Street bank bosses warn lawmakers of economic toll from tough new rules
economictimes.indiatimes.comJPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and other major banks warned lawmakers Wednesday that capital hikes and other new regulations being contemplated by U.S. bank regulators will hurt lending, capital markets and the broader economy.
The industry has been waging a fierce campaign to kill the «Basel endgame» proposal, which overhauls how banks must calculate their loss-absorbing capital, and as regulators roll out fair lending and fee cap regulations, among other rules.
The CEOs hope to use the hearing as an opportunity to try to convince key moderate Democratic senators that the rule, which is being led by the Federal Reserve, could stifle lending, hurting small businesses and consumers.
«If enacted as drafted, this proposal will fundamentally alter the U.S.
economy in ways that the Federal Reserve has not studied or contemplated,» Dimon, CEO of the country's largest lender JPMorgan, said in his prepared testimony published by the Committee on Tuesday.
Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the Committee, quickly criticized the banks for aggressively lobbying against the rules, including with multiple public advertising campaigns and meetings with lawmakers. Banks have overstated the adverse potential impact of the rules in a bid to preserve their profit margins, he added.
«Absolutely nothing in these rules would stop your banks from making loans to working families,» he said.
