It's a case of one rule (or, in fact, less rules) for US banks but another rule for foreign banks. The Federal Reserve plans to ease regulation for big US banks, but there will be no changes in the regulatory burden on big foreign banks operating in the US, reports the FT. Congress has ordered the Fed to lift some of the strictest provisions of the Dodd-Frank regulations for banks with between US$100 billion and US$250 billion in assets. Randal Quarles, the Fed's vice-chairman for supervision, has told the Senate banking committee some banks above the high end of that bracket could also see regulatory lightening. But Quarles indicated that lobbying by large global banks who have less than US$250 billion in their US subsidiaries to be included had been unsuccessful. Banks falling into this category include Deutsche, Credit Suisse and Barclays.