As the Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day FOMC meeting today to discuss economic and financial conditions in the US, we wanted to highlight a few ways American consumers will be impacted by the higher capital requirements proposed by Basel III Endgame.

Here are a few examples of how this proposal will harm Americans' everyday lives:

1. Americans' utility bills will increase: The proposed regulation hinders the ability of energy companies to manage risk, leading to increased costs that will be passed onto consumers. According to the American Public Gas Association, "the increased cost to use commodity derivative contracts to hedge will most likely be directly passed onto APGA member systems' customers in the form of higher utility bills." 
2. Families will continue to face higher prices at the grocery store: Farmers use futures and options contracts to hedge price risks across a range of commodities, from corn to soybeans. Higher costs of hedging will increase costs to farmers, which will be passed onto consumers, according to the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. 
3. Minority and first-time homebuyers will find it harder to buy a home: The National Housing Conference warned that "if these standards are adopted, they will have a devastating impact on our efforts to increase Black homeownership and disadvantage all first-time, and, in particular, first-generation homebuyers who do not have the benefit of multi-generational wealth or higher than average incomes."

Increasing capital requirements will make economic conditions worse for consumers. It couldn't be more clear – regulators need to go back to the drawing board on Basel III Endgame.