Dimon Meets Tarullo as Banks Lobby Fed on Softer Rules - Bloomberg

Dimon Meets Tarullo as Banks Lobby Fed on Softer Rules - Bloomberg
  Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon led Wall Street bosses in a closed-door meeting to personally lobby Federal Reserve officials about softening proposed reforms that might crimp their profits.
The contingent, which included Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s Brian T. Moynihan, 52, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, pressed the Fed on rules they said would overstate trading risks and harm financial markets, the central bank said today in a statement. They also discussed what they see as flaws in Fed stress tests designed to gauge the strength of the nation’s largest lenders.

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Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of J.P.Morgan Chase & Co., in Miami. Photographer: Marice Cohn Band/Miami Herald/MCT/Getty Images

 

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May 2 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon was among banking CEOs who met with Federal Reserve officials in New York today to discuss industry oversight. Michael McKee reports on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." Adam Johnson and Trish Regan also speak. (Source: Bloomberg)

The meeting highlights the magnitude of Wall Street’s campaign to blunt new regulations. While none of the banks is in jeopardy, the setting and surroundings -- reporters huddled outside in the rain as TV transmitter trucks stood by -- evoked the drama of the September 2008 weekend meetings at the New York Fed that preceded Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy, and the 1998 rescue of Long-Term Capital Management LP.
There was a “give and take,” Dimon told reporters as he left the meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He wouldn’t elaborate as he got into a waiting black Chevrolet Tahoe. The Fed’s representative, Governor Daniel Tarullo, told the executives he couldn’t give them feedback on rulemaking proposals, according to the central bank’s statement.

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“When they are all there, it does drive home the concerns,” said Douglas Landy, a partner at Allen & Overy LLP who previously worked at the New York Fed.
According to the Fed’s statement, the bankers “presented their views” about topics such as the board’s rules to limit counterparty risk, the stress tests and proposed rules from the Fed to restrict proprietary trading, known as the Volcker rule.
“Their comments would be considered together with all other comments and feedback received from other interested parties,” the Fed said.
Dimon, 56, sought the meeting after the Fed completed its stress tests of the largest banks in March, according to a person briefed on the matter who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. Tarullo, 59, didn’t get into debates with the CEOs, who also included Morgan Stanley (MS)’s James Gorman, 53, U.S. Bancorp’s Richard Davis, 54, and State Street Corp. (STT)’s Joseph “Jay” Hooley, 55, according to the Fed.
In a public speech earlier in the day in New York, Tarullo said it was “sobering” to think how much new regulation is yet to be completed.

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