White House intends to push new bank rules

Today, the National Association of Business Economics will host a speech by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, which will announce the possible need to tighten rules in the banking sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Yellen is expected to say that the regulatory system that the Treasury Department helped create after the 2008 financial crisis was insufficient to protect financial stability. And the recent turmoil caused by the bankruptcy of American banks only underscores that efforts to strengthen the financial system have not been completed.

The current banking crisis has shown that there is a need to complete all unfinished business: finalize post-crisis reforms and consider the consequences of deregulation more deeply.

In particular, the White House plans to introduce new rules for medium-sized banks: tightening capital and liquidity requirements, as well as conducting annual stress tests (which medium-sized banks successfully opposed during the decade after the 2008 financial crisis).

The rules will be aimed at banks with assets from $100 to $250 billion: both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank would fall into this category.