US regulators will make sweeping changes to their bank-capital rules proposal, cutting the expected impact to the biggest banks by half and exempting smaller lenders from large portions of the measure, a top Federal Reserve official said.
The proposed revisions to be previewed by Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr in a speech Tuesday would roughly cut in half the 19% capital hike that regulators had planned for eight of the biggest US banks. Those lenders, including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., would now face a 9% increase in the capital they must hold as a cushion against financial shocks.
