Bipartisan Senate Consensus Demands Structural Change To Fed IG
At today’s Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing on Fed accountability, Chairwoman Warren (D-MA) was unsparing in her criticism of the Fed and its current IG, Mark Bialek. She elicited the fact that he is the Fed’s highest-paid employee and, while he may be dismissed only by two-thirds of the Board, she argued that he is essentially captive and thus cannot be relied upon to investigate ethics challenges, bank failures, and internal operations.
HFSC GOP Demands LLPA Changes No Matter FHFA’s RFI
As anticipated, Chairman Davidson (D-OH) reiterated GOP demands that the FHFA rescind the entirety of its LLPA proposal at today’s HFSC Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance hearing, despite FHFA conceding to some Republican demands and issuing an RFI on the Enterprises’ single-family pricing framework earlier this week. Mr. Davidson also pushed back on FHFA’s assertion that LLPA pricing must be set with regard to private mortgage insurance, saying that MI does not reduce taxpayer risk or GSE capital even though it is required for risk reduction and captured in the GSE capital standards.