The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs published a majority press release on a letter from Chairman Tim Scott and Senator Mike Rounds to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman supporting the Board’s work to finalize a revised Basel III Endgame rulemaking. The senators urged the Federal Reserve to assess capital requirements “holistically” and to anchor any final calibration to the baseline that existed before the post-pandemic capital ramp-up rather than to current capital levels. The letter argued that aggregate common equity tier 1 ratios for large U.S. banks have risen by more than 20 percent since 2020, attributing the increase partly to growth in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet and the economy rather than increased risk. It warned that using today’s elevated capital levels as the reference point would embed excessive requirements, raising costs and reducing access to capital for consumers and small businesses.
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs 2025-11-06
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs urges Federal Reserve to finalize revised Basel III Endgame using a pre-pandemic capital baseline
The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs released a letter from Chairman Tim Scott and Senator Mike Rounds to Federal Reserve leaders, advocating for a holistic assessment of capital requirements in the Basel III Endgame rulemaking, anchored to pre-pandemic levels. The letter highlighted concerns that current high capital levels could lead to excessive requirements, increasing costs and limiting capital access for consumers and small businesses.