McWilliams Positions Herself as Crypto Liberal Among Agency Skeptics
In remarks posted this morning, FDIC Chair McWilliams provided an update on the inter-agency “crypto sprint.” Ms. McWilliams made it clear that her intent is not to prohibit bank crypto activities but instead to govern them, announcing that a series of policy statements will be issued in “coming months.”
U.S. Adds Voice to Health/Finance G20 Construct
The U.S. Treasury has now joined other G20 finance ministers in calling for a new forum coordinating health and finance policy. The proposal was sparked by an earlier report from former government officials such as Larry Summers based on the need to ensure that all national and global resources are prepositioned to prevent the next pandemic.
Global Regulators Tackle Margining, CCP Resilience
Advancing an FSB priority most recently emphasized in the Board’s forward-looking plan, the Basel Committee, IOSCO, and the Committee on Payment and Market Infrastructures today invited comment on additional margining standards addressing problems identified in the March 2020 COVID crisis.
House Advances Open-Source Regulatory Data
The House late yesterday passed 400-19 the Financial Transparency Act (H.R. 2989), legislation reintroduced by Reps. Maloney (D-NY) and McHenry (R-NC) requiring the federal financial regulatory agencies to adopt data collection-and-distribution standards on format, searchability, and transparency.
OCC Stands Firm on LIBOR Transition, Supervisory Priorities
In remarks generally focused on LIBOR transition, Acting Comptroller Hsu today emphasized that the U.S. agencies fully intend to end LIBOR and “zombie LIBOR” as of year-end and that even banks that think themselves immune from transition risk are exposed to it.
HFSC Takes Up CFPB Rulemakings, Bigtech, Big Banks
Ahead of its hearing tomorrow with CFPB Director Chopra, HFSC’s majority staff memo indicates that Democrats plan to address recent CFPB rulemakings including those on mortgage servicing, the QM rule and GSE patch, small business lending disclosures (see FSM Report SBA40), and LIBOR transition.
NGFS Prioritizes Climate Data Gaps, Inconsistent Methodologies
Continuing the go-slow approach to sweeping climate-risk rules, the NGFS today updated progress on implementation of its supervisory recommendations, urging supervisors quickly to address data gaps, the lack of harmonized methodologies and risk metrics, and insufficient internal capacity and resources.