Divided Fed proposes rule to ease capital requirements for big Wall Street banks

Capital Requirement Adjustment - The Fed proposed easing capital requirements for the largest banks in the US [1] - The proposal aims to address banks' concerns about intervening in treasury markets during stress or taking additional deposits during crises [3] - Dissenters argue the proposal weakens the banking system by reducing capital buffers [3] Financial Impact - The proposal reduces Tier 1 capital requirements by 140 basis points (1.4%) for the biggest banks [1] - It is estimated to release approximately $13 billion in capital [2] - Depository institution subsidiaries' capital requirement would decline by $210 billion in aggregate [2] Regulatory Context - The proposal involves the Supplementary Leverage Ratio (SLR), where capital is the numerator and total assets (including risk-free assets) are the denominator [2] - The change is not a unanimous decision within the Fed [4]