Most recently, the Federal Reserve finalized a rule implementing section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act to establish enhanced prudential standards for large banking firms in the form of riskbased and leverage capital, liquidity, and risk-management requirements. In addition, the rule requires large foreign banking organizations to form a U.S. intermediate holding company, and it imposes enhanced prudential requirements for these intermediate holding companies.
Although no definitive data source exists, the combination of a variety of recent survey results paints a picture of increasing optimism about future sales and business conditions and a corresponding easing of credit availability for small businesses. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Figure 4.