#leverage – Federal Financial Analytics

15 09, 2023

DAILY091523

Eliza Allen2023-09-15T16:55:06-04:00September 15th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Warren Adds Interest-Rate Risk to Fed Concerns

Heightening her attack on Fed interest-rate hikes, Sen. Warren (D-MA) yesterday pressed Treasury Secretary Yellen for FSOC action addressing interest-rate risks. Those she highlights include unrealized bond losses, CRE hazard, and challenges in the leveraged-loan market. Citing Moody’s recent credit downgrade of 10 regional banks, Ms. Warren voiced concern that interest rate risk still poses a systemic threat in these three areas and urged FSOC to act quickly to mitigate risk without suggesting specific actions.

Daily091523.pdf…

14 09, 2023

DAILY091423

Eliza Allen2023-09-14T16:47:09-04:00September 14th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

IOSCO Proposes Leveraged Loan, CLO Best Practices

IOSCO today released a consultation report proposing best practices for leveraged loans and CLOs that address origination and refinancing, EBITDA and documentation transparency, aligning interests from loan origination to end investors, managing conflicts of interest throughout the intermediation chain, and disclosures.

Durbin, Marshall Press Credit-Card Interchange Bill

Reiterating concerns expressed last month and comments yesterday on the Senate floor, Senate Whip and Judiciary Chairman Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Marshall (R-KS) were joined this time by Sen. Welch (D-VT) and four House Members calling on Visa and Mastercard to reverse planned fee hikes.

GAO Presses for FSOC Power to Regulate, Not Just Designate

The GAO today issued a report recommending that Congress consider legislation allowing FSOC to compel regulatory action, arguing that this would better accomplish the Council’s mission because FSOC currently has limited power to respond to systemic risk.

HFSC GOP Highlight CBDC Privacy Concerns

As anticipated, HFSC Digital Assets GOP Members continued their staunch opposition to a U.S. CBDC, with Subcommittee Chairman Hill (R-AR) and Majority Whip Emmer (R-MN) asserting that private innovation can modernize payments without the risk of government surveillance.

Brown Doubles Down on Opposition to House Crypto Bill

Making it still more clear that he is not supportive of pending House cryptoasset legislation, Senate Banking Chairman Brown (D-OH) today sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen, SEC Chairman Gensler, and CFTC Chairman Benham asking for views on where new authority may be needed.

Daily091423.pdf…

6 09, 2023

Daily090623

William Cross2023-09-07T09:07:08-04:00September 6th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

FSB Focuses on NBFI Liquidity, Leverage with Few Concrete Actions

Following its report recommending resolution-policy review, the FSB today continued its G20 reports with two focusing on NBFIs. The most substantive of these addresses sector liquidity. Recommendations here include adoption of pending OEF standards, continuing review of margining and work to determine if NBFI systemic-risk standards are warranted.

Fed Study: Big Bank Branches May Better Serve Customers

Fed staff have issued a report suggesting that new large bank branches tend to grow faster than new ones at small banks because large bank branches are favored by customers seeking lower prices or greater value.

IMF Outlines Post-SVB Supervision Standards

In an opaque but nonetheless stinging rebuke to U.S. bank supervision, the IMF today released a working paper emphasizing the importance of supervisors having the will and ability to act on effective supervision, recommending that supervisors are given strong operational independence and accountability, clarity regarding the primacy of their safety-and-soundness mandate, adequate resources, and legal protection.

Daily090623.pdf…

29 08, 2023

DAILY082923

Eliza Allen2023-08-29T16:55:20-04:00August 29th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Agencies Advance Controversial Long-Term Debt, Resolution Proposals

The FDIC, OCC, and FRB today tackled several critical resolution issues in the wake of recent bank failures, proposals that raise strong objections from regional banks despite FDIC and FRB unanimity today on at least one of them. As anticipated, the FDIC and FRB approved an NPR that would impose minimum long-term debt requirements for banks and BHCs with assets over $100 billion, with the FDIC and Fed boards voting unanimously in favor even as FRB Gov. Bowman strongly dissented despite a three-year transition period. Similar to the ANPR floating this rule (see FSM Report RESOLVE48), the proposal would require large banks to hold a minimum amount of eligible long-term debt equal to the greater of six percent of risk weighted assets, 3.5% of average total consolidated assets, or 2.5% of total leverage exposure for banks subject to the SLR.

Daily082923.pdf…

26 07, 2023

CAPITAL229

Eliza Allen2023-07-26T14:30:18-04:00July 26th, 2023|5- Client Report|

FedFin Assessment: What to Watch in the Regulatory-Capital Rewrite

As promised, we plan in-depth coverage of the Fed and FDIC meetings tomorrow as well as of the capital rewrites they are set to propose no matter all the warning shots from Congressional Republicans. In this report, we provide an overview of each of the rules the agencies will propose based on key issues in the Basel end-game standards they will finally advance. We do not focus on details or how the U.S. may adapt these rules except where public releases have provided advance insight. Instead, we highlight key issues to provide vital background and context of tomorrow’s actions as well as key decision points on which comment and political advocacy are sure to center.

CAPITAL229.pdf…

25 07, 2023

DAILY072523

Eliza Allen2023-07-25T17:18:26-04:00July 25th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Key Democrat Takes On Fed Rate Hikes

Ahead of today’s FOMC meeting, Joint Economic Committee Chair Heinrich (D-NV) yesterday sent a letter to Fed Chair Powell cautioning against additional policy tightening.

Second HFSC Markup Targets Stablecoins, Regulatory Restrictions, ESG

Thursday’s HFSC has now added another day to its mark-up calendar this week, moving the stablecoin and ESG bills to Thursday doubtless in order to avoid an endurance contest before the August recess and still meet Chairman McHenry’s (R-NC) commitments.

Senate GOP Tries to Block Capital Rewrite

Just days before the banking agencies take up new capital rules, Senate Banking Ranking Member Scott (R-SC) and ten other committee Republicans sent a letter to Chairman Powell demanding greater transparency and prior consultation.

Waters Presses FHFA for FHLB Reform

Following FHFA listening sessions and in anticipation of a final report this September on the FHLB system, HFSC Ranking Member Waters (D-CA) late yesterday sent a letter to FHFA Director Thompson laying out a series of recommendations to significantly reform the system.

Ag Committees Slam SEC Custody Proposal

In a letter to SEC Chairman Gensler released today, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Boozman (R-AR) and Chairwoman Stabenow (D-MI) along with House Ag. Committee Chairman Thompson (R-PA) and Ranking Member Scott (D-GA) raised strong objections to what they called serious flaws in the SEC’s proposed custody rule (see FSM Report CUSTODY5).

Warren, Scott Renew Fed-Ethics Campaign

Continuing their bipartisan campaign against the Fed, Sens. Warren (D-MA) and Scott (R-FL) yesterday sent a letter…

30 09, 2021

GSE-093021a

Arezou Rafikian2023-07-31T15:48:19-04:00September 30th, 2021|4- GSE Activity Report|

Crazy for CRT

Now that we have FHFA’s comment deadline – November 26 – we expand our initial analysis of FHFA’s capital rewrite into a more detailed assessment of its strategic impact. How key industry sectors view this new approach will very much depend on what each sector wants – those who want CRT got almost all they desired while those who want bank capital parity lost still more ground to Fannie and Freddie. Assuming the final rule advances ASAP along proposed lines – and we think it will – and combined with the liberalized PSPA, CRTs will define mortgage securitization across anything close to a conventional conforming loan and all the higher-risk products the GSEs can purchase again.

GSE-093021a.pdf…

27 09, 2021

Daily092721

Arezou Rafikian2023-07-31T16:11:17-04:00September 27th, 2021|2- Daily Briefing|

FRB-NY Climate Stress Test Reveals Large Capital Shortfalls
A new Federal Reserve Bank of New York paper proposes a climate stress-test methodology which, when deployed, finds significant systemic risk due to large bank capital shortfalls during periods of sharp transition risk.

Timeline Set for GSE Capital Rewrite
The Federal Register today includes FHFA’s proposed changes to the GSEs capital framework. As detailed in our in-depth report, the rule would actively promote CRT and rewrite the leverage ratio, making risk-based capital the GSEs’ binding constraint.

Gensler Ramps Predictive-Analytics Threat Up to Systemic Risk
Following his Senate Banking appearance earlier this month (see Client Report INVESTOR18), SEC Chairman Gensler today reiterated his focus on digital engagement practices (DEPs), warning that predictive data analytics could increase systemic risk due to increased data- source concentration, herding, and interconnectedness.

McHenry Attacks Treasury for “Social Agenda,” Warns of Chinese Threat
Ahead of Treasury Secretary Yellen’s appearance before HFSC this Thursday, Ranking Member McHenry (R-PA) blasted Biden administration financial policy on grounds that it advantages China at cost to U.S. national interest.

Daily092721.pdf…

16 09, 2021

GSE-091621

Arezou Rafikian2023-08-03T14:53:07-04:00September 16th, 2021|4- GSE Activity Report|

Structured Finance Finds a Friend

As we noted, FHFA wasted no time after the PSPA revision with its proposed changes to GSE capital regulation. Although the changes seemed technical to many observers, the agency’s fact sheet makes clear that they are fundamental. Now, the GSE capital construct is predicated on CRT to move the money and thus preserve the capital, not on a capital raise to big-bank equivalents. FHFA says this makes the GSE regime equivalent to that for global systemically-important banks (GSIBs), but it still differs in key and often critical respects from the regime applicable to U.S. GSIBs. No matter, CRT is the new thing and faster GSE recapitalization is the certain result.

https://fedfin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GSE-091621.pdf…

15 09, 2021

FedFin on: GSEs Get a New, If Familiar, Gig

Arezou Rafikian2023-08-03T14:58:42-04:00September 15th, 2021|The Vault|

As noted yesterday, Treasury and the FHFA pulled the Trump PSPA’s plug, although importantly and widely overlooked is that this is true only when it comes to near-term asset-purchase considerations. Still, with this action atop all the others redefining Fannie and Freddie since Sandra Thompson took over, the GSEs are being reconfigured into agents of Administration policy in concert with being still more critical agencies for housing finance.

The full report is available to subscription clients. To find out how you can sign up for the service, click here.…