Remarks as prepared for SIFMA and BPI’s 2019 Prudential Regulation Conference.

Good morning. I’m Joe Seidel, Chief Operating Officer at SIFMA.

Thank you for joining us here today at our 6th Annual Prudential Regulation Conference. SIFMA is pleased to once again partner with the Bank Policy Institute to present robust content on critical issues affecting our mutual membership and examining how prudential regulation impacts the U.S. capital markets and the economy.

I want to thank our sponsors: Davis Polk, PWC and Sullivan & Cromwell. I also want to thank all of our panelists for taking the time to be with us today.  And I’d like to recognize John Court of the Bank Policy Institute and Carter McDowell of SIFMA for their hard work in organizing this event, and the respective conference teams at BPI and SIFMA for bringing it all together. Collectively they have put together an outstanding program with presentations from key regulators, policy makers and practitioners including Commissioner Hester Pierce with the SEC, Commissioner Brian Quintenz of the CFTC, and Mark Van Der Weide, General Counsel at the Federal Reserve Board, among others. You’ll be hearing from these experts on topics ranging from the overall impact of the prudential liquidity rules on the capital markets, the Fed’s role in setting policy for the U.S. capital markets as it related to stress testing and CCAR, to the end of the Fed’s balance sheet wind down.

Over the last several years, our industry has been focused on working to build up capital to enhance the resiliency of the financial system. Common Equity Tier 1, or CET1, is now up 71% since 2009 for the CCAR firms, typically used as a gauge for the entire financial system. The average CET1 ratio for the CCAR firms is 11.8%, well above the 7% minimum requirement and even greater than the maximum regulatory requirement inclusive of the highest G-SIB surcharge. The focus has now shifted to working with our prudential and market regulators as they set out to tailor and improve upon the post-crisis reform of the U.S. prudential and market regulatory regime. Executing more fully on recommendations initially put forth by the Treasury Department with the end goal of tailoring the balance between financial stability and economic growth potential for the next decade remains a strong focus.

To that end, industry and regulators have been examining the necessary revisions to several major rules adopted over the last ten years.  For example, today, we are patiently awaiting the next iteration of the Volcker Rule, as well as next steps on stress testing, Basel IV implementation (Basel IV), the fundamental review of the trading book (FRTB), the enhanced supplemental leverage ratio (eSLR), the net stable funding ratio (NSRF), internal TLAC requirements, and Congressionally mandated tailoring for domestic and foreign banking organizations, to name a few top priority concerns.

Clearly, there is much left to do in accomplishing responsible recalibration, not to mention other potential material distractions such as Brexit, the launch of new alternative reference rates to replace Libor, and the ever-present cyber threats. In large part, that is what we are here to discuss today.  We hope today’s event will help shed light on where we’ve been and where we are going in the prudential regulatory space for years to come.

I’m now pleased to welcome to the stage H. Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman of Sullivan and Cromwell, for a fireside chat.

The primary focus of Mr. Cohen’s practice is regulatory, enforcement, acquisition and securities law matters for U.S. and non-U.S. financial institutions and their trade associations, and corporate governance matters for a wide variety of organizations.

Mr. Cohen advises the financial services industry on the full range of regulatory, compliance, enforcement and merger and acquisition matters, including multiagency investigations relating to compliance with anti-money laundering and sanctions issues. He frequently works with all the bank regulatory agencies as well as multiple other governmental agencies. Key recent matters include the Volcker Rule, numerous other provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, international capital and liquidity standards, resolution and resolution planning and cybersecurity. He provides corporate governance advice to a large number of financial and non-financial institutions, both regular clients and as special assignments.

We are honored to have you here today Rodge.

Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that all sessions in today’s conference are open to the media and on the record.

Thank you again for taking the time to be with us today.

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Joseph L. Seidel is Chief Operating Officer at SIFMA. He manages day-to-day operations of the Association, including core legal, regulatory, business practices, public policy and communication activities.