Fed Considers ‘Material Changes’ to Volcker Rule: DealBook Briefing<br />When Senator Brown asked Mr. Mnuchin if he believed the new bill would reduce regulations for foreign banks, he said: “That is correct.” Indeed,<br />the Treasury, when it set out its aims in a report last year for reducing financial regulations, included relief for foreign banks.<br />The Fed in 2014 said that foreign banks with less than $50 billion in United States assets (not a global<br />consolidated measure) would be eligible for less stringent requirements under its foreign banking rule.<br />If the bill passes, and the Fed gives foreign banks no relief from certain regulations, the foreign banks could argue in a lawsuit<br />that they are competitively disadvantaged against American banks with assets under $250 billion that did get such relief, some opponents of the bill contend.<br />Mr. Quarles said the rule was “an example of a complex regulation<br />that is not working well,” and that the Fed is working on revisions to make the rule less burdensome to firms that do not have large trading desks.
