Powell, Barr and Oaktree on banks and Basel III

Amid the back-and-forth on the proposed banking rules, banks seem committed to a complete withdrawal from below investment grade lending.

At his news conference following the September meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, chairman Jerome Powell embraced a plan by regulatory chief Michael Barr to ease the bite of the Basel III endgame rules on bank lending.

At about the same time, Oaktree released the transcript of a panel discussion on the changing face of private credit that turned on precisely this issue: banks, the bank capital rules and the consequences for private credit.