The Morning Risk Report: Big Banks Score Win Under New Plan to Loosen Capital Rules By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal
Good morning. America's biggest banks would be allowed to hold billions of dollars less in capital on their books under proposals unveiled Thursday, easing rules
put in place after the 2008 financial crisis that were meant to help shield against meltdowns.
Crisis legacy: Big banks received massive bailouts in the 2008-09 financial crisis, prompting policymakers to impose higher capital requirements and other tightened controls designed to protect against a future crash. The measures limited their ability to lend and helped open the door to private-credit firms and other nonbank lenders.
Victory at hand? Proposals introduced by the Federal Reserve and other regulators would hand a major victory to big banks, which had resisted sharply higher requirements proposed under the Biden administration. Wall Street's embrace of a second Trump administration had largely centered on the prospect that plans for those stricter requirements would be scrapped.
Regulatory wishes granted: Wall Street has been navigating a host of significant changes since Trump's return to the White House, including crypto-friendly regulators and accusations by the administration that banks shut out certain customers and industries for political reasons. Banks have largely steered clear of direct confrontation with the administration on many of those issues, to avoid derailing deregulatory changes they have long desired. Lower capital requirements have long been at the top of Wall Street's list of wants. Compliance
SEC sued for allegedly silencing investors.
Shareholder groups are suing the Securities and Exchange Commission in a bid to force a rollback of changes that make it easier for companies to shoot down shareholder proposals, Risk Journal reports .
New SEC policy that lets companies more easily block shareholder proposals from their proxy statements violate those shareholders' rights, groups As You Sow and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility said in the lawsuit filed Thursday in D.C. federal court.
Russia's shadow-fleet kingpin is back in business.
Moscow's shadow-fleet kingpin and premier oil trader was reeling- until President Trump attacked Iran . His tankers had been boarded by French soldiers and attacked by Ukrainian drones.
American sanctions on his main client, state-owned Rosneft, had pushed India to slash imports of Russian crude. Ships he controlled via a network of shell companies were setting sail with millions of barrels of unsold oil.
Two weeks on, Indian and Chinese refiners are working through those tankerloads of crude to replace supplies trapped inside the Persian Gulf.
A coalition of eight states is attempting to block
Nexstar Media's planned $6.2 billion acquisition of rival broadcaster Tegna, a deal that if allowed to proceed would see the consolidation of hundreds of local TV stations.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball as the regulator looks to expand oversight
of fast-growing prediction markets tied to events.
Planned Parenthood's Illinois branch agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a federal investigation
into alleged discrimination against white employees, including through segregated affinity groups and abusive training sessions.
U.K. antitrust officials launched an investigation
into Adobe, saying early cancellation fees on membership plans for certain products might be in breach of consumer-protection law.
Attorneys general from New York and California are leading an alliance of states, counties and cities in an attempt to reinstate the legal foundation for federal greenhouse gas emissions regulation .
Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino was grilled Thursday at the concert promoter's monopolization trial , as he sought to defend the company's ticket fees and past boasts about its dominant market share and profitability. Risk
China isn't planning to invade Taiwan in 2027, U.S. concludes.
The U.S. intelligence community has dialed back the view of the risk
of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by next year and concluded that Beijing would prefer to take control of the self-ruled island without resorting to force.
The finding is a shift from past U.S. warnings that an invasion could happen by 2027. That looming deadline fueled a sense of urgency in Washington and Taipei and prompted both to sharpen their strategy and invest in their arsenals.
China Hoped Trump Summit Would Cement Its Superpower Status. Now Xi Has to Wait.
'It's a nightmare': Rapid battlefield shifts leave markets trading blind.
Global energy markets now hinge on a volatile new variable: battle damage assessments.
Oil and natural-gas prices initially surged Thursday after a sweeping escalation in the Persian Gulf. Iranian strikes on critical energy infrastructure have traders racing to determine exactly what was hit, the extent of the damage and how long facilities will be offline.
These attacks present a new reality
for energy markets, already suffocating under the paralysis of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Critical Energy Assets Hit in the Gulf
U.S. War Planes and Helicopters Kick Off Battle to Reopen Hormuz
Iranian Strikes Take Big Toll on Qatar's Ability to Export Gas Shell Says Production at Pearl GTL Plant in Qatar Halted After Iranian Attack
Saudi Arabia Sees a Spike to $180 Oil if Energy Shock Persists Past April
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. may remove sanctions
in the coming days from Iranian oil already at sea to relieve pressure from rising prices.
Ukraine's ability to continue fighting Russia's invasion was thrown into question
on Thursday after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refused to lift his veto on a loan of more than $100 billion.
World trade flows and economic growth are set to slow more sharply than previously expected
if the rise in energy prices and disruptions to transport caused by the Middle East conflict are long-lasting, although the surge in AI-enabling investment could yet help cushion that blow, the World Trade Organization said Thursday.
By most standards, China's economy has never been stronger. Its exporters have powered the country to a $1.2 trillion surplus with the world. It is the global leader in strategically important industries such as electric vehicles, solar panels, shipbuilding and humanoid robots. Yet, by one important measure, China's global heft is shrinking .
Risk Journal Podcast
Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz is having an immediate impact on energy prices, but a prolonged crisis could have devastating effects on global trade. Also, regulators and states are locked in a battle over who should supervise prediction markets. James Rundle hosts.
You can listen to new episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts , Spotify
and Amazon .
What Else Matters The Trump administration is preparing to ask Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars
in funding to pay for its military campaign against Iran, setting the stage for a high-stakes fight on Capitol Hill.
Rivian Automotive is jumping into the autonomous taxi race -with up to $1.25 billion in help from Uber.
An American citizen now appears to be in charge
of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel, potentially complicating U.S. efforts to eradicate the narcotics trade here.
Makers of electric-vehicle batteries are pivoting
to make energy storage for data centers and utilities.
They lost a college basketball game by 141 points. Don't worry- it gets better . About Us
Follow us on X at @WSJRisk . Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at [max.fillion@dowjones.com], Mengqi Sun at [mengqi.sun@wsj.com] and Richard Vanderford at [richard.vanderford@wsj.com].
You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at [david.smagalla@wsj.com].
This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 20, 2026 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT)
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