Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, led by Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, sent a letter to Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Travis Hill urging them to withdraw three bank capital proposals, including the 2026 Basel III Endgame proposal. The senators argued the package would weaken capital standards, raise the risk of large bank failures and taxpayer bailouts, and should be replaced with stronger rules that support lending and economic growth. The letter says the 2026 Basel III proposal materially dilutes the 2017 Basel agreement and the 2023 proposal by removing tougher capital treatment for risky trading activities, lowering capital requirements for loans to nonbank financial companies such as private credit funds, and dropping changes meant to improve loss absorption for operational risks including legal penalties, cyberattacks and system outages. It also argues the proposal may breach Section 171 of the Dodd-Frank Act, known as the Collins Amendment, by exempting large banks from generally applicable risk-based capital requirements and subjecting them to a more lenient framework. The senators separately objected to two other proposals in the package, one that would reduce the surcharge for the eight U.S. global systemically important banks and another that would lower risk weights for various assets, which they said would reduce required capital by 6% to 8% for banks outside the Basel III Endgame proposal.
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs2026-06-23
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Democrats urge regulators to withdraw three capital proposals
Democratic senators on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee asked the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to withdraw three capital proposals, including the 2026 Basel III Endgame plan. They said the measures would weaken capital standards, increase failure and bailout risks, and in one case may violate the Collins Amendment. The letter also objected to a lower GSIB surcharge and to lower risk weights that would cut required capital by 6% to 8% for some banks.