Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — As Congress returns from its August recess, a variety of banking problems — varying from charge card interchange charges to marijuana banking — might get traction prior to the year is out. But some professionals state a hectic summer season for bank regulators has actually soured any opportunity of bipartisan compromise on banking-related costs.
A battle developing over federal government costs is anticipated to use up the majority of the oxygen on Capitol Hill for a minimum of the next month. For lenders, that indicates another opportunity for the Durbin-Marshall charge card costs to slip through on a must-pass piece of legislation — the most likely method for any sort of banking legislation to pass.
But there are standalone costs that might turn up also: Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate Majority Leader, nodded to marijuana banking in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Friday, in addition to bipartisan legislation out of the Senate Banking Committee that would provide the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. more capability to claw back the payment of stopped working bank executives. That indicates those problems might resurface for a markup or vote in the coming month.
But on the banking front, professionals prepare for a harder landscape for that sort of legislation to advance — even simply to be connected as a rider to a must-pass costs.
Ed Mills, handling director of Washington policy for Raymond James, stated that the Federal Reserve’s Basel III endgame proposition, which would enforce extra capital requirements on big banks, has actually produced an environment on the Hill “where Republicans are skeptical of additional bank regulation.”
“It’s a question of how much Basel III endgame rules poisoned the well for other bank regulations on the Hill,” he stated. “There’s a view that Democrats or regulators appointed by Democrats are using the bank panic of March to go further, kind of on a partisan basis, and implement some significant increases to capital. So with that as a backdrop, I think that the ability to compromise on some legislative proposals becomes more difficult.”
Specifically on marijuana banking and the RECOUP Act — the 2 bank-specific problems pointed out in Schumer’s letter — the anger over the Basel proposition even more decreases the opportunity that House Republicans will be open to using up their cause, even with some degree of bipartisan contract in the Senate.
“I don’t think they’re dead, but they certainly have a flat tire,” stated Ed Groshans, a senior policy expert at Compass Point Research.
Some bank groups likewise see bitterness growing after the Basel III capital guidelines in between President Joe Biden’s bank regulators and House Republicans. Bank groups right away pressed back versus the Fed’s capital proposition after banking regulators launched it in July, stating that it surpasses worldwide requirements and would need that strong banks hold more capital than is essential to be safe.
“House Republicans in particular have a little bit of a bone to pick with the Fed, where they feel like in a number of instances the Fed is going beyond its mandate,” stated Kristen Sutton, executive vice president of congressional relations and legal affairs at the American Bankers Association, in an interview. “But you’re seeing interest in regulatory action in the House and the Senate and on both sides of the aisle. The impact would be so sweeping that you are seeing members wanting to get an understanding of what the Fed is proposing and the potential implications not just for banks, but really, and perhaps even more importantly for their customers.”
Absent a Congressional Review Act obstacle must regulators not finish the Basel III proposition prior to this summer season, House Republicans are restricted in what they can achieve on the bank capital front, regardless of simmering anger over the proposition.
Still, Ian Katz, an expert with Capital Alpha Partners, stated that House Republicans will likely still vocally slam the capital proposition, in addition to a variety of propositions from the FDIC recently that would enforce more stringent long-lasting financial obligation and living will requireds, as a repeating style throughout the remainder of the year.
“The main thing I’m expecting is a fair amount of Republican pushback to the two recent batch of bank proposals, Basel and last week’s long-term debt and resolution-related requirements,” he stated. “I think there will be criticism of the levels of capital that will be required in Basel, in addition to the part about mortgages, which I think some Democrats will latch onto.”
