House Passes Legislation Modifying Systemic Risk Designation Requirements

Federal Issues Federal Legislation Dodd-Frank SIFIs Bank Regulatory S. 2155

The House voted 288-130 on December 19 to pass legislation modifying Dodd-Frank Act asset requirements for systemic risk designations of bank holding companies. Under H.R. 3312, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2017, bank holding companies that are subject to increased capital requirements and heightened supervision by the Federal Reserve (Fed) will no longer be automatically designated as systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) if their asset threshold is $50 billion or greater. Instead, the Fed will review a bank holding company’s size, interconnectedness, infrastructure, “global cross-jurisdictional activity,” and complexity to determine whether it should be designated as a SIFI. Relatedly, the Senate Banking Committee is currently considering a separate measure, S. 2155, which would, among other things, increase the SIFI asset threshold to $250 billion.