WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote to the banking regulators that proposed the
Scott, who recently announced that he is
"Ultimately, these large increases in capital have not been shown to be evidentially based as the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC have failed to provide proper analysis or data to justify their merits, particularly around the costs they will impose throughout all sectors of the economy," the Republicans said in the letter. "In fact, we have heard widespread concerns regarding the negative impacts that Basel III could have not only on affordable housing but on mortgage lending writ large, small business lending, and consumer lending."
The lawmakers said that regulators
"While we appreciate that the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC have extended the initial comment period and are now conducting a data collection, it is too little, too late," they said. "A thorough cost-benefit analysis is critical to ensuring that our regulatory regime is based on sound quantitative analysis and should have been conducted well before releasing the Basel III proposal."
The phrasing of the Republicans' complaints suggests that lawmakers are
In the case of the Basel III rulemaking, Republicans have taken issue with what they describe as a lack of a transparent process, and not receiving any economic analysis that the Fed may have performed on the impact of the rule.
"It is disappointing to see a rule proposed that is over 1,000 pages long, lacking any quantitative analysis to suggest that the rule is even necessary," the lawmakers said in the letter. "While we heard for many months from Vice Chair Barr that the Federal Reserve was engaged in a holistic review of capital standards, the results of that review have never been publicly disclosed outside of a speech by the Vice Chair summarizing the results."