WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, in a Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Implementing Basel III: What’s the Fed’s Endgame?” Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) questioned witnesses about the effects of new capital requirements for U.S. banks and the economy.

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Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer: “It would appear to me that if we’re going to basically repeal the S. 2155 and replace it with this one-size-fits-all that small banks are going to be the losers in all of this. Would you comment on that?”

Mr. Olmem: “I think that’s one of the big concerns here is that there is a remarkable diversity of institutions that are covered by this, and you’re going to have a one-size-fits-all approach to regulating them. Over time, the risk is that they’ll converge business models because that’s easier to regulate and losing that diversity of business models really does undermine the vitality of our banking system.”