#FRB KC – Federal Financial Analytics

19 12, 2022

DAILY121922

Eliza Allen2022-12-19T16:49:50-05:00December 19th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

JEC Report Calls for Crypto Regulation

The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released a report late Friday arguing that recent contraction in the digital-asset market demonstrates the need for more regulation. While it does not outline specific policy changes, the report asserts that new regulations must strive to keep digital assets separate from the broader economy to prevent contagion, as well as ensure that investors are properly informed on digital asset’s individual risks.

KC Fed Discounts SLR Relief as Solution to ONRRP Growth

A Friday brief from the Kansas City Fed concludes that limited money-market investment opportunities, policy uncertainty, and ONRRP changes such as easier eligibility better explain the sharp increase in ONRRP than bank-capital shortages as deposits flowed to MMFs. As a result, the paper concludes that reinstating SLR exemptions for central-bank deposits and Treasury obligations would not materially affect bank use of the ONRRP and thus facilitate Fed balance-sheet reduction.

McHenry Tees Up Fintech Action for New Congress

Incoming Chairman McHenry (R-NC) today reintroduced legislation designed to facilitate financial innovation, kicking off his chairmanship’s focus on fintech, crypto, and other financial technology related matters. The bill does not address priority policy questions in this contentious arena, instead creating a pathway for financial innovators to request information on whether they are eligible for exemptions from relevant regulations from the banking agencies and CFPB.

Daily121922.pdf…

17 10, 2022

DAILY101722

Eliza Allen2022-10-17T17:11:36-04:00October 17th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FRB KC: Distrust, Wealth Gap Behind Black Consumer Crypto Appeal

A new article from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reviews multiple factors that contribute to cryptocurrency’s appeal to Black consumers, an issue initially highlighted by Karen Petrou in an op-ed in September of 2021. Key factors include the racial wealth gap, the “generational” distrust of financial institutions, crypto’s accessibility and perceived stability compared to traditional financial institutions, and increasing comfort with digital technology. The article’s conclusions are grounded in an array of survey data reiterating significant statistical disparities in equity ownership and median household wealth between white and black households, correlating these with higher proportional crypto ownership of Black compared to white adults.

Daily101722.pdf…

11 10, 2022

DAILY101122

Eliza Allen2022-10-12T10:26:48-04:00October 11th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FSB Slow-Walks Global Crypto Action

As promised, the FSB today released preliminary recommendations for global cryptoasset regulation and questions for consultation.

FSB Demurs on Crypto Systemic Risk

In its latest letter to the G20, the FSB today leaves its prior global-risk assessment largely unchanged, but refines its action plan.

Hsu Hunts for Reasons to Tolerate Crypto

In two speeches today, Acting Comptroller Hsu has again reiterated his concerns that cryptoassets pose an array of risks, a view of course echoing the FSOC’s findings (see Client Report CRYPTO33) and those in recent Treasury reports (see Client Report CBDC14 and Client Report CRYPTO32).

FRB KC: Better Data, Research Needed to Guide Payment Inclusion

A new research briefing from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City calls for more research and data collection on underserved populations excluded from the payment system as well as more systematic research into public and private payment inclusion initiatives.

HFSC Republicans Press Hsu on Bank-Fintech Partnerships

HFSC Ranking Member McHenry (R-NC) and four other House Republicans today sent a letter to Acting Comptroller Hsu demanding clarification on the OCC’s treatment of bank-fintech partnerships.

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25 08, 2022

DAILY082522

Eliza Allen2023-01-04T10:34:26-05:00August 25th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

KC-Fed: Data Aggregation Requires Rules Before Mass Adoption

The Kansas City Fed yesterday released a briefing on data aggregators concluding that they can improve the efficiency and quality of consumer financial services if proper regulation protecting data security and privacy is enacted.

SEC Prioritizes Enforcement, Disclosure, Working-Families and Systemic Risk

The SEC’s new strategic plan through 2026 speaks to Chairman Gensler’s focus on fairness, economic opportunity, and enforcement. Specifics are sparse, but the plan puts the agency’s enforcement policy in the context of protecting “working families” especially when it comes to enforcement in areas such as cryptoassets.

FSI Report: Bigtech, Third Party Vendors Pose Operational Risk

The BIS Financial Stability Institute today released a study examining operational resiliency through a macroprudential lens, offering recommendations on how to address systemic risks presented by critical third-party service providers and bigtech.

Daily082522.pdf…

29 06, 2022

DAILY062922

Eliza Allen2023-01-24T16:00:53-05:00June 29th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FRB-Cleveland Study: Small-Business Finance Availability Shows Continuing Disparate Impact

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland today published the results of the Small Business Credit Survey, finding that small businesses owned by people of color were far less likely to have recovered to pre-pandemic levels than their white counterparts, due in part to continuing gaps in financial access.

GOP Renews Demand for Reserve Bank Reform

Picking up on the GOP’s serious concern about Federal Reserve Bank governance expressed when Chairman Powell came before them last week (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE70), Senate Banking Republicans today sharply criticized the head of the Kansas City Fed for what they call her unresponsiveness and even untruthfulness related to how Reserve Trust achieved payment-system access.

CFPB Report: Credit Line Reductions Harm Vulnerable Borrowers

Continuing the CFPB’s assessment of credit-card finance, Bureau staff today issued a report about the adverse impact that credit line reductions or withdrawals have on consumers, especially those under stress.

HFSC Homeownership Session Fans Partisan Flames

Today’s HFSC hearing on homeownership and inequality was a largely partisan session where each side repeated policy and macroeconomic arguments along party lines about the best ways to govern the nation’s housing market.

IMF Calls for Improvements to Capital Market Regulation

The IMF issued a report today on capital-markets regulation calling for new market liquidity backstops, strengthened CCP risk management, and greater attention to emerging risks to strengthen the regulatory perimeter focus.

Waters Renews Demands to Break Up Big Bad Banks

Following the hearing …

2 06, 2022

DAILY060222

Eliza Allen2023-02-10T16:10:34-05:00June 2nd, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Fed Study Outlines Fixes to Make Retail CBDC Functional

A new Federal Reserve paper assesses the interplay between a U.S. retail CBDC and monetary policy transmission if whatever the Fed comes to offer is widely adopted for both payment and investment purposes.

Black Crypto Investments Reflect Wealth Gap Born of Financial System Distrust

A new article by the Kansas City Fed investigates the popularity of cryptoassets among Black investors and explains what may attract them and how this is a symptom of the racial wealth gap. The study found that Black investors are both more likely than whites to own crypto instead of safer assets such as stocks and mutual funds and more likely to expect high returns (i.e., 27 percent for Blacks versus 15 for whites) from crypto.

Fed Study Finds Enforcement Actions Increase Minority Lending

A study today released by the Fed found that, since 1997, banks subject to an enforcement action increased their mortgage lending to minorities and decreased minority denial likelihood, even if the action was not issued for violation of the fair-lending laws.

FIO Prioritizes Biden Climate-Risk Goals

The meeting today of FIO’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance focused on FIO’s work to meet the goals set out for it in the President’s climate-risk executive order (see FSM Report GREEN8).

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27 05, 2022

Daily052722

Eliza Allen2023-02-21T13:31:35-05:00May 27th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

KC Fed: Advanced Nations Struggling to Find a CBDC Rationale

In concert with Vice Chair Brainard’s testimony yesterday (see Client Report CBDC13), the Kansas City Fed released a brief assessing the reason advanced economies have so far been considerably more hesitant than emerging ones to craft retail focused CBDCs. By laying out how many advanced economies are at best lukewarm to CBDC, the brief’s review illuminates reasons why the FRB is hesitant without directly addressing the U.S. The post looks at numerous CBDC rationales (e.g., financial inclusion, Payment-system speed) and differentiates them by major nations.

FRB-Cleveland: Post-1994 Bank Restructuring Improved LMI Inclusion

A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland offers perhaps the first literature survey of financial inclusion. It largely summarizes outstanding work, but notes that interstate banking following the Riegle-Neal Act of 1994 correlates with increased bank-branch density correlated in turn with a four percent increase in LMI household financial inclusion. This conclusion is interesting in light of the significant increase following the Act also in bank consolidation in light of continuing concern about “banking deserts” said to be due to M&A (see FSM Report MERGER9).

Daily052722.pdf…

23 05, 2022

DAILY052322

Eliza Allen2023-02-21T13:53:43-05:00May 23rd, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FRB-NY Staff: Mandatory Flood Insurance Harms LMI Households

A New York Fed blog post today points to another important, unintended consequence of well-meaning regulation: the adverse impact of mandatory flood-insurance coverage on LMI households.

FRB Atlanta Staff Bolsters Proposed Cash Acceptance Mandate

A blog post today from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta strengthens the case for the mandate for retailer cash acceptance recently approved by the House Financial Services Committee.

Kansas City Fed Finds Persistent Commodity-Market Price Hikes, Volatility

Reflecting concerns in a recent Petrou op-ed, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City today released a report differing from the FOMC’s optimistic inflation forecasts at least as far as they relate to commodities.

HFSC Tackles Disability Rights

Tomorrow’s HFSC Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion hearing on disability rights will focus not only on housing access, but also on the extent to which a broad range financial services are easily accessible to persons with disabilities.

Fed Survey Shows Significant LMI Investment in Payment, Investment Crypto

The Fed today released a report on household well-being in 2021, detailing an array of survey findings that generally show Americans feeling remarkably prosperous and satisfied. The Fed cautions that this may no longer pertain, but the data do suggest what may be more than a passing rebound in economic resilience for at least some families.

Daily052322.pdf…