Opening Statement by Chair Janet L. Yellen

Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome our guests to the Federal Reserve today as we consider an important milestone in the Board's effort to mitigate the potential risks that systemically important financial companies could pose to financial stability and our economy.

The proposed rule that the Board is considering today would impose a risk-based capital surcharge upon the most systemically important U.S. bank holding companies. This framework would provide incentives to these banking organizations to hold substantially increased levels of high-quality capital as a percentage of their risk-weighted assets. This, in turn, would encourage such firms to reduce their systemic footprint and lessen the threat that their failure could pose to overall financial stability. The proposed rule is an important part of the Board's efforts to establish enhanced prudential standards for the most systemic U.S. banking firms and improve the resiliency of these firms.

I look forward to today's discussion of these important issues. Let me now turn to Governor Tarullo.