Washington, D.C., September 15, 2016 - The financial industry plays an integral part in the global economy, providing financing that fuels growth and job creation. In the eight years since the financial crisis, the industry has transformed itself. Globally, banks have raised over $1 trillion in additional capital, increased liquidity and reduced leverage. Without a doubt the system is safer, sounder and more robust than ever. We must now focus on ensuring that banks and other financial institutions continue to play their role in fueling growth and job creation.'

• Globally, banks have raised over $1 trillion in Tier 1 capital, allowing for safer lending and guards against times of stress.

• Liquidity in the U.S. alone is now three times higher than what existed during the crisis.

• Leverage has also decreased:

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' U.S. banking sector leverage has fallen' from 10.3x in 2008 to 9.3x in 2016

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' Euro Area banks have dropped from 18x in 2008 to 13x in 2016

• These substantial improvements, as described by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, "I do believe the enhancements that we have put in place to capital and liquidity requirements that are tailored by firm size and systemic importance have made an enormous difference to the safety and soundness of the U.S. financial system. The quantity of capital at the largest banking organizations is essentially doubled from before the crisis, and the quality of that capital is very much higher."'(Janet Yellen,' Committee On Banking, U.S. Senate, Testimony, 6/21/16)

• Large banks are not growing larger. In fact, three of the largest U.S. institutions are smaller and three others only became larger during the crisis because of government-forced acquisitions as part of an effort to stabilize the financial system.

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' In fact, the "different size classes" of the global banking industry are a key aspect of improved stability. According to Fed Governor Lael Brainard, "One thing we can all agree is that we have a more resilient and dynamic financial system as a result of having a very large number of banking organizations, in different size classes, pursuing different business models. Indeed, that diversity is one of the hallmarks of the U.S. system, which distinguishes it from many other advanced economies."(Lael Brainard,"Dodd-Frank At Five: Assessing Progress On Too Big To Fail,"Federal Reserve, 7/9/15)

• The repeal of Glass-Steagall did not cause the financial crisis and restoring the law would not make the system more stable, as many are advertising.'

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' According to former Brookings expert Doug Elliot,"Combined groups benefit from the diversification effect of having both businesses together. Usually one side does better than the other in troubled times, reducing the risk of failure. Since the Crisis demonstrated that investment banking failures can be nearly as devastating to the economy as commercial banking failures, there is clear value in diversification to protect both sides. This is a major reason the big failures were in firms with purer focuses."(Doug Elliott,"Political Myths About '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' Banking Make For Bad Policy,"Brookings, 3/24/15)'

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' As stated by Fed Governor Tarullo,"Many firms at the center of the crisis would have been essentially unchanged had Glass-Steagall been in effect."(Governor Daniel K. Tarullo,Remarks At Brookings Institution Conference,Washington D.C.,12/4/12)

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  'And by Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke,"I'm really puzzled by it, because if you look at the crisis, if you look at all the companies that had problems, commercial banks lost money making loans, investment banks lost money in securities markets, and Glass Steagall was pretty irrelevant to that. The only thing GS would've done would've prevented the acquisition some of those investment banks by banks, which would've actually in the event, would've been destabilizing."(Ben Bernanke,"re We Safer? A Look At The Financial System, Post-Crisis,"Brookings Institution, 11/17/15)

• Resolution road maps are now in place for regulators to wind down a bank in the case of significant financial trouble or reorganize them, as needed.'

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' In fact, regulators in charge of resolution on both sides of the Atlantic have declared that any large bank failure can be resolved today with the tools in place.

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' In the words of FDIC head Martin Gruenberg,"In my view, we are at a point today that if a systemically important financial institution in the United States were to experience severe distress, it would be resolved in an orderly way under either bankruptcy or the public Orderly Liquidation Authority".(Martin J. Gruenberg,"Remarks to Eurofi High Level Seminar 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 4/21/ 2016)

• We've seen the introduction of TLAC, further improving the ability of banks to withstand financial stress and failure without imposing losses on taxpayers.

'  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  '  ' Bank of England governor Mark Carney calls the TLAC statute"n essential element for ending too-big-to-fail".(Matt Clinch,"Global Banks Receive 'Too-Big-To-Fail' Rules,"'CNBC, 11/9/15)

• The 2016 Dodd-Frank mandated stress tests proved that all big banks in the US would be able to make it through a recession and still maintain adequate financial buffers.

• Following this year's annual stress tests, Fed officials also suggested that U.S. banks would be able to withstand an event like Britain's exit from the European Union.

• Imposing additional unworkable regulations on top of the already appropriately substantial capital rules will further constrain banks' lending capacity, which could impact Americans looking for financing to better their future.