Biden’s likely Fed pick could change tone on climate risk, capital rules
By Joe Adler and Jon Prior
The Biden administration appears close to naming a Treasury Department veteran and leading voice on fighting climate-related financial risk to the top bank-regulatory job at the Federal Reserve Board. Sarah Bloom Raskin — who was the No. 2 at Treasury and a Fed governor in the Obama administration — has emerged as the top candidate for vice chair of supervision at the central bank and could be nominated as early as this week, according to several news outlets. …Other key areas for a vice chair of supervision to address are how to regulate cryptocurrency and the future of a key capital measure known as the Supplementary Leverage Ratio. “I do not think she will try to reverse everything Quarles did because that is a formidable undertaking of lengthy proposals that will limit the ability to do anything new,” said Karen Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics.“She’ll likely take on climate, crypto, maybe reopening the Volcker Rule and covered funds, certain aspects of [foreign bank] regulations. She will also play a major role in the Fed’s issues in pending Treasury-market reform, like what to do about the SLR.”