FDIC flags liquidity rules, merger guidance and long‑term debt for regional banks as priorities

During the question‑and‑answer portion of an FDIC press briefing, reporters pressed the agency on near‑term regulatory priorities, and the FDIC chair outlined a set of rulemaking items the agency is focused on.

Responding to a Reuters question about statements from other regulators on the Basel III endgame proposal, the chair said the banking agencies received more than 400 distinct comment letters and are “in the process of carefully reviewing all of the comments,” adding that the agencies anticipate making changes in the final rule based on the submissions.

On merger policy, the FDIC signaled it expects to update its statement of policy under the Bank Merger Act after soliciting input through a request for information. “We issued a request for information to solicit input on how the FDIC reviews bank mergers under the statutory factors of the Bank Merger Act,” the chair said, adding the agency is “quite focused on” the update but offering no firm timing.

The chair identified three core priorities for the agencies: liquidity issues, capital matters and a proposed long‑term debt requirement for regional banks intended to address resolution challenges exposed by last year’s failures. He said the agencies are reviewing changes to liquidity rules including the liquidity coverage ratio, considering bank access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window and the prepositioning of collateral at Federal Reserve Banks to assure access during stress.

On timing, when asked whether election-year political calendars might affect rulemaking, the chair said the matters are important and the agencies intend to follow through on the rulemakings.

Reporters pursuing details on the problem‑bank list and other monitoring issues were told the FDIC sees a modest increase in the number of problem institutions this quarter but that the absolute number remains small; the agency said it will pay close attention to the trend over coming quarters.