BlackRock called on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to promptly withdraw proposed restrictions on money managers’ stakes in lenders, contending the rule change would upend index funds, make it more costly for banks to raise capital and disrupt the economy.
The proposal presents “significant risks,” BlackRock said in a letter Oct. 25 to the FDIC. The plan could lead to “negative consequences by creating regulatory and market uncertainty and discouraging investments in bank securities,” said the world’s largest asset manager, which oversees more than $7 trillion of exchange-traded and index funds.
BlackRock was responding to an FDIC proposal to apply additional control and oversight over money managers’ larger stakes in banks, which the regulator has sought because of concerns that concentrated ownership could give firms such as BlackRock undue influence over lenders.
BlackRock, Vanguard Group and State Street are regularly among the top shareholders in almost all publicly traded U.S. firms, and their index funds’ popularity has boosted stock ownership, including in banks. Some U.S. lawmakers and regulators have warned the growing scale of these firms allows outsize influence over public companies, a view that money managers reject by citing their voting records in support of company management in the vast majority of situations.
“The FDIC has an interest when entities seek to directly or indirectly control FDIC-supervised institutions,” the agency said in a statement. “This proposed rule would remove an existing provision in our regulation that prevents the FDIC from taking a change in bank control notice in a situation where a controlling investment is made through a holding company.”
Under current rules, some money managers have “passivity agreements” with banking regulators that allow stakes in excess of 10% if they commit not to control a lender.
The FDIC has sought greater oversight of these agreements. Earlier this year, the agency privately sought details from BlackRock and Vanguard over their investments in banks.
BlackRock said in its letter that the FDIC is applying its oversight to certain firms as a “fait accompli” before the agency has reviewed comments on the proposal.
In a separate statement on Oct. 24, BlackRock said: “Demanding action before a comment period is over or before agency coordination is arbitrary and counterproductive. At a minimum, the FDIC should not act until after the agency has fully evaluated all public comments” and coordinated with the Federal Reserve and other regulators.
The FDIC’s actions could lead to delays, costs and uncertainty, especially related to rebalancing fund holdings, according to BlackRock. The rule change could also make it costlier and harder for banks to raise capital in the U.S. stock market, the firm said.
“This decrease in buy-side demand could impair the liquidity of these bank stocks and drive down their prices,” BlackRock said in the letter.