Fed, Treasury Continue Opposition To ICS
The Fed and Treasury today issued the annual report Congress required in 2018 to ensure that “Team USA” does not undermine state insurance regulators in global FSB or IAIS negotiations.
Senate Banking Considers Insurance Risk, Reach
Chairman Brown (D-OH) convened a hearing today focused on the insurance industry largely focusing on the extent to which private-equity takeovers endanger insurance solvency and threaten pensioners following risk transfers. Republicans generally denied any concerns but joined the chairman in urging U.S. agencies to play an active role in IAIS and decline to join global standards adverse to U.S. interests. Sen. Van Hollen (D-MD) also raised the issue of insurance-industry reliance on the Home Loan Banks, but a witness representing the NAIC and the head of the Federal Insurance Office took no stand on any concerns here. Senators also addressed insurance discrimination, reparations, cyber risk coverage, and climate hazards, but no legislation in any of these arenas was advanced.
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).