Bowman plans to lay off 30% of U.S. banking regulators within three years

At an internal meeting on Thursday, Mr. Bowman, the Fed's vice-chairperson for regulatory affairs, said the bank's supervisory and regulatory division would be restructured to reduce staffing levels by 30 per cent from nearly 500 to about 350 by the end of 2026, according to an internal memo obtained by US media and people familiar with the matter. The cuts will be made mainly through attrition, retirement and voluntary separation programs. The restructuring comes as Mr. Bowman and other US regulators push to ease bank capital requirements and refocus regulatory priorities. The plan is also in line with the Fed's overall plan to cut 10 per cent of its workforce across the system over the next few years and is in line with the Trump administration's broader direction of reducing the size of the US financial regulator. At an internal meeting on Thursday, Mr. Baumann stressed that regulators should focus on material risks to banking institutions and avoid getting caught up in procedural matters that do not affect the sound operations of the Financial Institutions Group, according to people familiar with the matter.