Top Treasury official wants to ‘Americanize’ any Basel rules

The Treasury Department is working with the bank regulators to finish the U.S.’s Basel committee-pursuant capital standards with an eye to clearing obstacles for American firms and “harmonizing” regulation of the financial system, the deputy secretary said Friday.

Michael Faulkender said parts of the capital framework issued by the Basel committee would be considered, but that U.S. regulators must ensure any capital regulations are “Americanize[d].”

“The U.S. financial system was built around … lending to individuals and businesses,” Faulkender said in remarks delivered at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If we lose one of the important strengths of our economic system by moving more toward financing government and inadvertently decrease the funding…