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Issues In Focus
The latest in-depth FedFin analysis on breaking strategic challenges and critical policy question.
Financial Services Alert
This analytical service is a battery of alerts and analyses that keep senior management up to the minute on federal developments that affect strategy and the bottom line.
Financial Services Management
Financial Services Management is the analytical resource for senior management. Sharp and concise, it provides detailed discussions of the implications of a wide range of federal actions.
GSE Activity Report
GSE Activity Report is the only analytical service so objective that the GSEs and their harshest critics, as well as the government and investors, all rely on it.
Expert Analysis and Testimony
Federal Financial Analytics managing partner Karen Petrou has on a selective basis agreed to serve as an expert witness in litigation germane to matters such as director-and-officer liability related to regulatory requirements, the manner in which financial institutions are resolved, and the role forward-looking regulatory planning plays in M&A transactions, contractual matters, and related corporate actions.
Engine of Inequality, by Karen Petrou
The first book to reveal how the Federal Reserve holds the key to making us more economically equal, written by an author with unparalleled expertise in the real world of financial policy.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible.
“Petrou’s book uncovers a hidden engine of our skyrocketing inequality: financial-policy. In an accessible and engaging prose, Petrou takes us through the inner workings of monetary policy at the Fed and financial regulations, how they’ve made inequality worse and how they could instead be retooled to take us to a more equitable future. A novel look at the problem of inequality and bold ideas to help resolve it. A must read.”—Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics at the University of California Berkeley and author of The Triumph of Injustice
Read full description and reviews.
Industry Expert
Federal Financial Analytics (FedFin) is a Washington-based financial services-consulting firm that has for decades attracted a high-powered clientele in Washington, on Wall Street, and among global central bankers. Since 1985 FedFin has provided a unique blend of analysis and strategic advice on public policy, regulatory, and legislative issues for industry and governmental clients doing business in the U.S. and abroad.
A proprietary think-tank for its clients, FedFin reviews critical federal and global policy developments in banking, insurance, asset management, and mortgage finance, analyzes them in great depth, and then advises clients on whether what they want can be made to work for them, within the policy environment and for the financial system. It is FedFin’s guiding principle to be an honest broker, and clients depend on the fact that the firm does not offer lobbying or any other services that could compromise its objectivity and independence.
As seen In:
In the News
American Banker, Wednesday, October 16, 2024
TD money-laundering scandal puts supervision back under the microscope By Kyle Campbell After using one of its most powerful enforcement tools to crack down on rampant money laundering at TD Bank, a Washington regulator finds its own oversight functions under the microscope. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [...]
Marketplace, Monday, October 14, 2024
What can quarterly earnings tell us about the economy? Marketplace talks with Karen Petrou Listen here: https://www.marketplace.org/2024/10/14/what-can-quarterly-earnings-tell-us-about-the-economy/
BankThink, American Banker, Monday, September 30, 2024
Bank merger policy has long needed a makeover — just not this one By Karen Petrou Until this month, the Department of Justice hadn't finalized the adoption of new bank merger policy guidelines since 1995. Given the banking industry's rapid evolution during the last three decades, an update was certainly [...]
Issues in Focus
The Vault
Karen Petrou: Why Open Banking Could Close a Door to Economic Opportunity
In the new and often just fervor to increase competition, trust-busters such as CFPB Director Chopra sometimes forget that too much competition can lead to the Hunger Games, not to the “fair” and “inclusive” sectors they seek. Defending the new open-banking rule, Mr. Chopra said that he was willing to accept even a good deal more fraud risk for consumers because his rule humbles incumbent financial-services companies. This is like [...]
Karen Petrou: Competitiveness in a Cold, Cruel World
When I gave a talk last week about bank-merger policy, I was asked an important question: if I’m right about the franchise-value challenges facing most U.S. banks, then why is banking here doing so much better than in other advanced, market-oriented nations? The answer in part is that, in a pond full of ugly ducklings, a scrawny mallard with just a few more feathers looks a lot better. But, it’s [...]
FedFin Assessment: TD Orders Set New Enforcement Paradigm
In this report, we build on our initial assessment of the ground-breaking AML enforcement action finalized last Thursday with TD Bank by the OCC, FRB, and FinCEN. While the banking agencies did not use their nuclear option – requiring TD to close its U.S. operations – the scope of the violations persuaded the agencies along with FinCEN and the Department of Justice to impose huge fines and so sharply constrain U.S. activities [...]