Nominations of Mark C. Brickell, Alicia R. Castaneda, and Thomas J. Curry: hearing before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Original publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2004. LC Number: KF26 .B39 2003p OCLC Number: (OCoLC)56565081 Excerpt: ... 11 the statutory ability to be just as rigorous in its approach as the banking supervisors are. Senator S. I see my time for this round has run out, and ARBANES I will come back and revisit some other issues with you. I only note again that the Post editorial this morning was pretty strong on this very issue about whether these GSE's should be allowed to set their own tests, and you are now opening up the prospect that that is what they would be allowed to do. And the Post goes on to say, ' ' The Banking Committee needs to assess whether he - ' ' meaning Mr. Brickle ' ' - has the right attitude. Regulators with a preset point of view and a disdain for tough enforcement have already done much damage during this Administration. ' ' Mr. Chairman, I presume there are going to be further rounds. Chairman S. There will be more rounds. HELBY Senator Carper. ARPER Senator C. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Brickell, good to see you again. Thank you for visiting with me last week. RICKELL Mr. B. Thank you, Senator. Senator C. Let me just ask, and I apologize if any of these ARPER questions have been asked before. If they have been, just let me know, and I will move on to another question. Let me just ask, what is your view, if you will, of the risk-based capital rule finally put into effect by OFHEO, would you still prefer the internal model approach that is being used in developing the Basel II Accord? Mr. BRICKELL. We have, in fact, talked a little bit about that, but I would like to summarize what we have said, particularly so that my view is clear. OFHEO has a tightly drawn statute under which it imposed its capital rule on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is a statute which hard-wires into the law itself many of the parameters that would be used to calculate the required capital for the two institutions. ...