The Federal Reserve Board approved a final rule requiring the largest, most systemically important U.S. bank holding companies to further strengthen their capital positions. Under the rule, a firm that is identified as a global systemically important bank holding company, or GSIB, will have to hold additional capital to increase its resiliency in light of the greater threat it poses to the financial stability of the United States.  The rule was adopted pursuant to section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The final rule establishes the criteria for identifying a GSIB and the methods that those firms will use to calculate a risk-based capital surcharge, which is calibrated to each firm’s overall systemic risk. Eight U.S. firms are currently expected to be identified as GSIBs under the final rule.

The final rule requires GSIBs to calculate their surcharges under two methods and use the higher of the two surcharges. The first method is based on the framework agreed to by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and considers a GSIB’s size, interconnectedness, cross-jurisdictional activity, substitutability, and complexity.

The second method uses similar inputs, but is calibrated to result in significantly higher surcharges and replaces substitutability with a measure of the firm’s reliance on short-term wholesale funding. The Fed believes that during the financial crisis reliance on this type of funding left firms vulnerable to runs and fire sales, which may impose additional costs on the broader financial system and economy.