#Liang – Federal Financial Analytics

1 03, 2023

DAILY030123

Eliza Allen2023-03-01T16:38:23-05:00March 1st, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

What’s Next For McHenry Privacy Bill

As we anticipated yesterday, HFSC reported H.R. 1165, Chairman McHenry’s privacy bill, on a party-line vote of 26-21. Discussions this morning lead us to conclude that Mr. McHenry plans to consider additional changes that could be made via a manager’s amendment when bringing the bill to the House floor given that its fate there is uncertain given the GOP’s slim majority.

CFPB Targets Public-Benefits Finance

The CFPB today published a “spotlight” examining numerous fees it says “erode” public benefit programs delivered through various financial products. Focusing in particular on prepaid cards, the spotlight states that the Bureau will monitor and may take action against entities violating consumer protection laws in the delivery of cash assistance. This comes following a major enforcement action in this area against Bank of America and reports of others pending against large banks.

Treasury Sets Out Steps Seemingly Towards A U.S. CBDC

Following up the President’s executive order on digital assets (see Client Report CRYPTO26) and Treasury’s subsequent report (see Client Report CBDC14), Under-Secretary Nellie Liang today outlined next steps leading to the Administration’s decision about CBDC benefits that will strongly guide the Fed’s CBDC final call. Ms. Liang details how CBDC and FedNow each have benefits, describing how CBDCs generally work and could function in the U.S.

Daily030123.pdf…

21 09, 2022

DAILY092122

Eliza Allen2022-09-27T16:31:10-04:00September 21st, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Liang Emphasizes Fed CBDC Views vs. Treasury Report

In remarks last night, Treasury Under-Secretary Liang took a decidedly more cautious stand on CBDC than Treasury’s recent report, emphasizing its caveats rather than over-arching conclusions. Differing from the report (see Client Report CBDC14), she reiterated Fed concerns that CBDC might undermine financial intermediation even as the report argues that it might well not do so if nonbanks were given access to it and to instant payments.

Senate Democrats Lambast More Big Banks

Ahead of their hearing with big-bank CEOs tomorrow, Senate Banking Democrats today released additional “snapshots” similar to those published earlier this week, this time highlighting Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase. These “megabank” snapshots follow the same format as those for the large regional banks, providing a list of headlines highlighting not only alleged instances of consumer discrimination and abuse, but also Wells Fargo’s fake accounts scandal and JP Morgan’s oil lending practices.

Daily092122.pdf…

9 09, 2022

DAILY090922

Eliza Allen2022-10-24T12:01:09-04:00September 9th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

White House Reaffirms Anti-Algo Stand

The White House late yesterday announced core bigtech policy principles. These are extremely general and do not go as far in areas such as antitrust that progressives sought.

U.S. Announces Start of Work on Basel “End Game”

Ahead of what might otherwise have been a fractious Basel Committee meeting, the Fed, OCC, and FDIC today reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to finalize what FRB Vice Chair Barr Wednesday called the Basel III “end-game.”

Basel Chair Announces Preliminary AI Priorities

Pablo Hernández de Cos, Chair of the Basel Committee, announced today the work that regulators plan on AI and algorithmic decision-making.

OFR Details Climate Data-Sharing Efforts

Acting OFR Director James Martin today addressed the need for integrated climate-related financial data and challenges to forecasting and modeling climate risk.

Liang Stresses Climate-Resiliency

Treasury Under Secretary Liang today reiterated an array of agency and Administration climate-risk priorities, emphasizing ongoing Treasury and FSOC climate resiliency efforts and underscoring Treasury’s commitment to a net-zero economy.

Treasury To Issue Price-Cap Sanction Guidance

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo today made it clear that enforcement of the anti-Russia oil-price caps will depend not only on restricting shipping insurance, but also doing so for financial and payment services.

Daily090922.pdf…

5 07, 2022

DAILY070522

Eliza Allen2023-01-24T15:42:23-05:00July 5th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Fed Develops a Measure of Operational-Risk Exposures

In a research note late last week, Federal Reserve staff proposed a new approach to quantifying a bank’s operational-risk exposure, a timely contribution to the debate sure to rage when the U.S. advances Basel’s proposed rewrite of operational-risk-based capital requirements (see FSM Report OPSRISK18).

FHLB Banks Said to Pose Grave Risks, Require Reform

A new paper from Fed staff and former Gov. Dan Tarullo argues that the Federal Home Loan Banks pose structural problems to federal bank regulation and systemic stability by virtue of their hybrid status and the absence of clear purpose under contemporary market circumstances.

FRB-New York: Digital Currencies Could Strengthen the USD

Contrary to Congressional fears (see Client Report CBDC13), a new blog post from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York projects that digital currencies might bode well for the continued international dominance of the dollar.

Liang Calls for New-Age CCyBs, Open-End Fund Reform, Digital-Asset Macropru

In remarks today, Treasury Under-Secretary Liang concludes that post-2008 macroprudential standards strengthened the financial system as evidenced by its ability to support the real economy in 2020.

Global Regulators Find Risky Connectivity Between Banks, BigTech

The BIS Financial Stability Institute today released a report investigating what it calls the regulatory blind spot of bigtech inter-dependency, recommending that regulators develop an entity-based regulatory framework for bigtech operations in the financial sector and, while they work on this longstanding goal, use an new, indirect approach.

Daily070522.pdf…

6 05, 2022

Al050922

William Cross2023-03-01T13:27:23-05:00May 6th, 2022|3- This Week|

Socking It to FSOC

As the schedule below notes, this week will again bring FSOC’s record and agenda before Senate Banking and the House Financial Services Committee. Much of the session will, as usual, wander into areas outside FSOC’s ambit – inflation and sanctions are sure-fire examples of non-FSOC issues on which Treasury alone exercises considerable sway and about which Congress is intensely curious. However, there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to high-priority financial policy and, even in Washington, talk often leads to action.

Al050922.pdf…