FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Bill Medley

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City today released the Second Quarter 2026 results from its semiannual Bank Capital Analysis (BCA), which provides an objective and data-based approach to judging capital strength across the banking industry. The BCA presents leverage ratios for individual U.S. global systemically important banks (G-SIBS), non-U.S. G-SIBs, and three other groups of institutions in the United States: large, regional, and community banking organizations.

The latest release of the BCA shows that while the weighted average tier 1 leverage ratio across U.S. G-SIBs had been trending upward through year-end 2023, it has declined 55 basis points year-over year to 6.34 percent as of June 30, 2026, and remains well below the leverage capital ratios for large banks (9.55 percent), regional banks (10.24 percent), and community banks (11.07 percent).

In addition, the weighted average supplementary leverage ratio (SLR), also known as the Basel III leverage ratio, for G-SIBs declined 49 basis points year-over-year to 5.31 percent as of June 30, 2026. The federal banking agencies’ recent recalibration of the enhanced SLR (eSLR) buffer, intended to reduce constraints on Treasury market intermediation, has likely contributed to this decline. The supplemental analysis takes a closer look at the impact across affected G-SIB holding companies.

Adequate capital is critically important for the safety and soundness of banks and for overall financial stability. It serves as a buffer against unexpected losses and insolvency, and protects the taxpayer-backed federal safety net for banks. Capital is particularly important for the largest systemically important banking organizations as protection against economy-wide financial instability. For more information about the Kansas City Fed’s Bank Capital Analysis, see Understanding the Bank Capital Analysis - Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

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As the regional headquarters of the nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and its branches in Denver, Oklahoma City and Omaha serve the seven states of the Tenth Federal Reserve District: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, northern New Mexico and western Missouri.