Fed announces meeting to discuss easing bank leverage rules

By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Reserve will consider plans to ease leverage requirements on larger banks at a meeting later this month, kicking off what is expected to be a broad effort to reconsider bank rules.

The U.S. central bank announced the board meeting, scheduled for June 25, to discuss changes to the so-called "supplementary leverage ratio," which requires banks to set aside capital against assets regardless of their risk.

The meeting will be the first following Fed Governor Michelle Bowman's confirmation as the central bank's top regulatory official. It could be the first of several rule-easing projects at the Fed as Bowman, a Republican tapped by President Donald Trump, has charted an ambitious plan for overhauling how the central bank regulates and monitors some of the nation's largest and most complex banks.

The Fed did not provide any details on the proposal under consideration, but banks have clamored for years for changes to the supplementary leverage ratio, potentially by exempting traditionally safe assets or revising the formula used to calculate the requirement.

The industry has argued the requirement was meant to serve as a baseline, requiring banks to hold capital against even very safe assets, but has grown over time to become a binding constraint on lending, and can actually hinder their abilities to intermediate Treasury markets during times of stress.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Paul Simao)

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