“U.S. banking regulators will write capital rules shaped by community-banker concerns that the proposals are too harsh, agency officials told critical lawmakers at a hearing today.

“The Senate Banking Committee questioned officials from agencies seeking to adopt tighter international capital rules adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The regulators want to make the transition as easy as possible for community banks, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.”

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“The regulators announced last week that they won’t hold banks to a Jan. 1 deadline in the proposals for boosting reserves against potential losses. The agencies are working “as expeditiously as possible” on rules proposed in June, meant to boost capital requirements to guard against a repeat of the 2008 credit crisis.

“At the hearing, regulators refused to give a new timeline on the rule and instead said they need to spend the time to study the comment letters.”

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“Any delay in the Basel rules for community banks should be for those institutions and those alone, Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, an organization advocating stricter financial regulation, said in a letter to the committee yesterday.” 

Read full Bloomberg article here