Bowman Opposes Global Unified Ledger, Cautious re Cross-Border CBDCs
FRB Gov. Bowman today sharply differed with BIS managing director Agustín Carstens on the future of central banks in wholesale payments. Mr. Carstens as recently as three weeks ago pressed again for central bank “unified ledgers,” placing central banks wholly into payment streams not only for commercial banks, but also across most other payment, settlement, and clearing assets.
Basel Proposes Extensive Crypto Disclosure Templates
As anticipated, Basel released a consultative document today providing a standardized template for crypto exposure disclosures, with a proposed implementation date of January 31, 2025. Basel proposes qualitative disclosures, including listing all crypto business activities, how they interact with the bank’s risk profile, the most significant current and emerging risks, and the bank’s approach to assessing classification conditions for group 1 cryptoassets.
Bipartisan Pressure Grows on White House for Iran, Other Sanctions
Led by Rep. Gottheimer (D-NJ), over one-hundred bipartisan lawmakers today sent a letter to President Biden calling for maximum enforcement of all U.S. Iran sanctions as well as immediate implementation of snapback sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council.
Community-Bank Liquidity Shows Significant Stress
Providing worrisome data on small-bank resilience, a new community banking bulletin from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City finds that community banks have decreased their holdings of highly-liquid assets over the past year to fund what it calls “outsized” loan growth despite deposit run-off.