“Japan joined Germany in opposing a proposed U.S. Federal Reserve rule aimed at compelling large foreign bank holding companies to hold more capital and liquidity in their American subsidiaries.
Bank of Japan Executive Director Hiroki Tanaka asked the Fed Board of Governors in an April 30 letter to “carefully consider major concerns” it has about the proposed rule. Japan’s Financial Services Agency asked that the proposed rule take into account “deference to home country regulation and supervision” in a letter signed by Masamichi Kono, the regulator’s vice commissioner for international affairs.
The letters followed an April 26 note by Bundesbank Vice President Sabine Lautenschlaeger and Bafin President Elke Koenig to the Fed board that “‘go it alone’ national initiatives can tend to weaken the global setup and stability” of systemically important banks “instead of stabilizing them.”
The Fed’s proposal would affect Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest lender, which last year dropped its bank holding company status so that it could meet U.S. requirements without assigning additional capital and liquidity to its unit in the country. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (8306), Japan’s biggest publicly traded bank, has operations in the U.S. including its San Francisco-based UnionBanCal Corp. unit.
