(Bloomberg) -- Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve’s top banking cop, said he plans to serve his entire term when questioned about what he would do if President-elect Donald Trump sought to fire him.
“As Chair Powell said, we serve fixed terms of office and I intend to serve my fixed term of office,” Barr told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Barr’s response on his tenure came after Representative Maxine Waters raised the issue and asked if he would pack up and go if Trump called to fire him. Barr’s term as vice chair for supervision ends in July 2026 and his term as a member of the board ends in January 2032.
Earlier this month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he wouldn’t resign if asked by Trump. He said Trump lacks the legal authority to remove the chair or other senior Fed officials in Washington.
Barr testified before the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing with President Joe Biden’s banking watchdogs. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg and Michael Hsu, acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, also attended the hearing.
Bank-Capital Plan
Barr also told lawmakers he would hold off advancing major rule proposals until 2025.
“We have three major interagency rulemakings on capital, liquidity and long-term debt, and I look forward to working with my new colleagues at the OCC and the FDIC on those rulemakings next year,” Barr said in response to questions about his agenda for the remainder of 2024.
Both Gruenberg and Hsu also assured lawmakers that their agencies would not advance major rulemaking before next year.
The Fed, in conjunction with the FDIC and the OCC, unveiled a landmark capital plan in July 2023 that would have seen the largest lenders in the US face a 19% hike in capital requirements.
A revised version that Barr previewed in September would cut the proposed capital increase to 9% for the country’s globally systemically important banks, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That version has faced resistance from other officials.
“I look forward with my new colleagues at the OCC and the FDIC — to get their input on that, to get their understanding of it, and to move that process forward,” Barr said.
(Adds details on future rulemaking, quotes from hearing throughout.)
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