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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, Thursday, August 8, 2024
Political bluster threatens the Fed's 'vibes-based' independence By Kyle Campbell Once taken as a given, the Federal Reserve's independence is facing existential questions in the current political environment. Former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview last week that if elected he would "bring interest [...]
American Banker, Monday, August 5, 2024
'They need to kick the tires': Karen Petrou on bank-fintech alliances By Penny Crosman The bankruptcy of bank-fintech partnership middleware provider Synapse and the many consent orders banks have received from regulators regarding their fintech relationships have formed a dark cloud over banking as a service. The way forward should [...]
American Banker Podcast, Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Some banks are making a Faustian bargain with fintechs: Karen Petrou By Penny Crosman Welcome to the American Banker Podcast. I'm Penny Crosman. The disputes between banking-as-a-service middleware provider Synapse and its banking partners have cast doubt on the whole practice of banking as a service, where fintechs build relationships [...]
Issues in Focus
The Vault
Karen Petrou: What’s Next for the Capital Rewrite
Few, if any, regulatory agencies are omniscient. More than a few think they are, but more often than not regulators who fail quickly to see the error of at least some of their ways are regulators who lose a lot more than they might otherwise have lost. Which brings us to the capital proposal and what next befalls this troubled standard after Michael Barr’s belated recognition that something had to [...]
FedFin on: The New Mortgage Capital Rules
As anticipated as recently as yesterday, the next round of U.S. end-game capital proposals will include a significant win for bankers when it comes to residential mortgage origination. Where it comes out on other key mortgage topics is, though, yet to be revealed.... The full report is available to subscription clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.
FedFin on: Barr Bows to Capital Reality
Noting that the Basel process reminded him of the need for “humility,” FRB Vice Chair Barr today laid out next steps for the contentious end-game capital proposal. In short, it will be entirely re-proposed with many specific changes to the current proposal (see FSM Report CAPITAL230) and a request to commenters to argue for still more over the planned sixty-day comment period. The re-proposal as it now stands along with [...]