Bill to Change SIFI Determination Postponed

Dodd-Frank FSOC U.S. House

The House of Representatives delayed discussion of HR 1309, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act, in an effort to give the bill’s sponsor Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) additional time to propose a method to fund the estimated $115 million cost of implementing the changes in regulatory oversight. The increased oversight costs stem, in part, from provisions in the bill that would require closer involvement by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) in determining whether a bank holding company is a Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI), and thus subject to enhanced supervision and macro-prudential standards by the Federal Reserve. Under the current law, originating from Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act, the FSOC looks only to whether the bank holding company has $50 billion in assets. Whereas under HR 1309, the FSOC would also factor whether a bank was subject to material financial distress, as well as the nature, scope, size, scale, concentration, interconnectedness or mix of the bank’s activities in making the SIFI designation.