US Treasury's Bessent says FSOC will drive regulatory change, outlines tariff policies

March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday said he plans to use the Financial Stability Oversight Council to drive change in financial regulations that are unduly burdensome to banks and characterized by a "broken supervisory culture," coordinating via Treasury rather than consolidating agencies.

One focus for banking supervisors should be to analyze supplementary leverage restrictions, he said, adding that more broadly President Donald Trump has begun an "aggressive campaign to rebalance the international economic system."

"For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this. International economic relations that do not work for the American people must be reexamined," Bessent said at the Economic Club of New York. "This is what tariffs are designed to address – leveling the playing field such that the international trading system begins to reward ingenuity, security, rule of law, and stability – not wage suppression, currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, non-tariff barriers, and draconian regulations."