#House Judiciary

7 03, 2024

DAILY030724

2024-03-07T16:51:03-05:00March 7th, 2024|2- Daily Briefing|

HFSC GOP Press Discount-Window Reform, Slow-Go on Liquidity Risk

Building on questioning at a recent HFSC hearing (see Client Report LIQUIDITY34), Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chair Barr (R-KY) led all Republican members of his subcommittee in a letter to Chair Powell, Chair Gruenberg, and Acting Comptroller Hsu urging them to address stigma and operational issues associated with the discount window.

Powell Reiterates: Capital Rules Will Change

Today’s Senate Banking hearing with Chair Powell covered much of the same ground as the Chair’s appearance before HFSC (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE75) with Democrats focusing on housing affordability and Republicans expressing their satisfaction with Mr. Powell’s statement that the Basel III proposal may have to be withdrawn and re-proposed.

House Judiciary Now Says 12 Large Banks Colluded with FinCEN

Prior to the House Judiciary’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing today on large bank “collusion,” the subcommittee yesterday published a report finding that FinCEN and the FBI engaged in backchannel discussions with large financial institutions to gather private financial data.

BCBS Proposes GSIB Window-Dressing Revisions

As anticipated, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today released a consultation on revisions to the GSIB assessment framework concerning window dressing.

House Republican Targets Interest on Reserves

Following up on yesterday’s HFSC hearing (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE75), Rep. Davidson (R-OH) has introduced legislation (H.R. 7562) to prevent Federal Reserve Banks from paying interest on excess reserves.

Daily030724.pdf

7 07, 2023

Al070723

2023-07-07T16:49:21-04:00July 7th, 2023|3- This Week|

The ESG Jihad

As anticipated, House Republicans have made July their “ESG month” with HFSC and other panels planning an array of actions culminating in an HFSC mark-up of as-yet-unintroduced legislation later this month.  Before writing this off as part of the GOP’s pre-election “culture-war” campaign, it’s worth remembering that the Democratic-controlled Senate still approved a House measure overturning Department of Labor ESG pension-investment rules; only a Presidential veto saved those rules and it might take more of them to counter what Republicans now have in store for the financial-services sector.

Al071023.pdf

7 07, 2023

DAILY070723

2023-07-07T16:47:33-04:00July 7th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

House Judiciary Joins GOP Asset-Manager ESG Attack

Continuing the GOP campaign against ESG, House Judiciary Chairman Jordan (R-OH) and Reps. Massie (R-KY) and Bishop (R-NC) sent letters late yesterday to the leadership of BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, claiming that what they call “collusive agreements” violate antitrust law.

FRB-KC: Farm Credit System Mergers May Influence Ag-Bank Portfolio Strategy

New research from Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City staff concludes that, while Farm Credit System mergers over the past twenty years had relatively minor effects on agricultural-bank profitability and efficiency, they may have altered bank portfolio decisions with broader implications both for banks and the communities they serve.

CFPB, Treasury, HHS Launch Interagency Inquiry Into Medical-Payment Products

As part of the White House initiative to address medical-sector “junk fees” and consumer protection, the CFPB today was joined by HHS and Treasury in issuing an RFI on high-cost specialty financial products it says harm medical patients by driving up debt.

FHFA Joins Repeat-Offender Crackdown

Acting on the “repeat-offender” crackdown initiated by the CFPB and recently picked up by the OCC, FHFA today issued a proposed rule that would revise its Suspended Counterparty Program (SCP) regulation to authorize FHFA to immediately suspend business between the GSEs and counterparties who are found to have committed civil or criminal misconduct in connection with real property management or ownership.

Daily070723.pdf

19 07, 2022

DAILY071922

2023-01-06T14:46:12-05:00July 19th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Fed Seeks to Bring Order Out of Looming LIBOR Chaos

Fighting the end-September deadline demanded in the new law (see FSM Report LIBOR7), the Federal Reserve Board today unanimously proposed the formulas by which benchmark-rate compliance will be judged in LIBOR-based legacy contracts without rate-fallback contractual clarity.

House Advances Sanctions, Cash-Access, Credit-Union, Mortgage Legislation to Uncertain Senate Fate

Chairwoman Waters (D-CA) today released an accounting of all the HFSC measures included in the massive National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) approved by the House late last week.

House Judiciary Damns Bigtech, Skirts Financial Services

House Judiciary Committee Democrats today tried to reinvigorate antitrust legislation focused on bigtech companies with a report concluding that stronger antitrust and merger enforcement is needed for Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.

CFPB Presses SPCs

The CFPB today issued a staff statement reiterating key points in February’s inter-agency statement encouraging special-purpose credit (SPC) programs.  The new CFPB release reiterates the criteria for SPCs that comply with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, noting also the benefits such programs may afford to racial equity.

OFR Details Commercial Real Estate Recovery, Emerging Risks

OFR today released a study detailing how the commercial real estate (CRE) market weathered the 2020 recession, also describing CRE’s future risks.

Daily071922.pdf

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