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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
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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.
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In the News
American Banker, Bankshot Podcast, Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Should banks be more worried about World War III or Cold War II? By John Heltman Below is a lightly edited transcript of the podcast: JOHN HELTMAN: I'm doing a podcast about Russia and Ukraine. And I know that you have feelings about Russia and Ukraine, right?... KAREN PETROU: I [...]
American Banker Bankshot Podcast: Thursday, May 5, 2022
By John Heltman Decentralized finance, or DeFi, could revolutionize the way money works, how it is controlled and how its power is distributed. But is DeFi the future or hype? Click the link below to listen to Heltman's conversation with Karen Petrou. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-revolution-will-not-be-centralized/id1462201421?i=1000559654997
The Hill, Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Fed expected to hike interest rates Wednesday By Sylvan Lane The Federal Reserve is racing to get inflation under control and pull back stimulus for an overheated economy with a double dose of rate hikes expected on Wednesday. The Fed’s monetary policy panel is expected to announce a 0.5 percentage [...]
Issues in Focus
October 26, 2020: FedFin Issues Brief: Going Green: The Future of U.S. Climate Risk Financial Policy
June 25, 2019: FedFin Policy Paper: Do Credit Unions Truly Advance Economic Equality?
The Vault
Karen Petrou: The Moral Obligation of Stablecoin Issuers
At the height of what proved his fleeting power, the founder of a now-evaporated stablecoin said, "I never debate the poor." And, perhaps he doesn't have to – his was not among tall the fiat-currency wallets emptied in the course of this high-flying venture. Those were mostly in the virtual pockets of young and often minority households. Regardless, this statement is stark evidence of the difference between the social-welfare obligations [...]
FedFin on: CRA Regulatory Rewrite
Following much talk about the need to update Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rules since this was last done in 1995, federal banking agencies have finally agreed on a proposed redesign of standards essential to banks that wish to expand or acquire as well as those seeking strong community ties and the policy and political benefit these afford. Much of the complexity in the NPR results from the agencies' decision to [...]
FedFin: Minimizing Mortgages, Maximizing Community Service
As we noted last week, the federal banking agencies sighed a mighty sigh and heaved up a massive inter-agency proposal rewriting decades-old standards detailing which activities earn the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) points essential for any bank's strategic objectives and national reputation. As discussed below, the new proposal is lengthy, complex, and in some cases analytically daunting or flat-out confusing. Still one critical conclusion is clear... The full report is [...]