Ann Wagner: “I thank Chairman Hensarling for his support and for yielding me this time. I am proud to rise today in support of my…”

“I thank Chairman Hensarling for his support and for yielding me this time. I am proud to rise today in support of my colleague, Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer, and urge immediate passage of his bill, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2017. H.R. 3312 uses a commonsense approach which would allow regulators the opportunity to weigh multiple factors before deeming a financial institution systemically important. More importantly, the bill would allow the Financial Stability Oversight Council, FSOC, to more precisely identify systemic risk by differentiating between stable activities and those that would truly threaten the financial stability of the United States. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the Federal Reserve was given never-before- seen regulatory power to supervise those that were deemed systemically important. Unfortunately, the Fed has chosen to ignore tailoring their regulatory standards and continues to base them on asset size alone. If an institution, indeed, is a minimal risk, then it is vital to make sure those standards reflect that lower risk. Finally, it is important to note that an arbitrary threshold does matter to those caught in the SIFI web. These financial institutions often face significant compliance costs under a SIFI designation, redirecting resources that otherwise would provide consumers with affordable financial products.…”