#Powell – Page 2 – Federal Financial Analytics

30 01, 2024

DAILY013024

Eliza Allen2024-01-30T17:13:26-05:00January 30th, 2024|2- Daily Briefing|

FinCEN Estimates High Bank-BOI Reporting Costs

FinCEN via the Federal Register today requested comment on the estimated total annual reporting and recordkeeping burden for new Access Rule beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements (see FSM Report AML135).

Brown Puts More Pressure on Powell

Following Sen. Warren’s rate-cut demands and affordable housing concerns yesterday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Brown (D-OH) today sent a letter to FRB Chair Powell also calling for less restrictive monetary policy on grounds that elevated rates negatively impact home affordability, limit the housing supply, restrict small business growth, and dampen wages.

HFSC Targets China Sanctions, Outbound Investments

Today’s HFSC National Security Subcommittee Hearing focused on China sanctions and restrictions on outbound investments.

GOP Demands Retraction of CFPB Tech-Payment Proposal

Reiterating their opposition to the Bureau’s pending digital-payment rule (see FSM Report PAYMENT27), HFSC Chairman McHenry (R-NC) alongside Digital Assets Subcommittee Chairman Hill (R-AR) and Rep. Flood (R-NE) sent a letter today urging the CFPB to reopen and extend the comment period and reconsider finalizing the rule as proposed.

Daily013024.pdf…

29 01, 2024

DAILY012924

Eliza Allen2024-01-29T16:36:27-05:00January 29th, 2024|2- Daily Briefing|

White House Advances AI Governance, Government Adoption

Following the President’s AI executive order (see Client Report AI3), the White House today released an update following a steering-group meeting.

BIS Study Examines Stablecoin Run-Risk

A new BIS study supports pending U.S. legislation and possible rules related to stablecoin reserve assets and run-risk, finding that transparency increases stablecoin stability when reserve assets are of high quality, but decreases stability when reserves are perceived to be low quality or when there are low transaction costs to convert to fiat.

Hsu Sets Course to New OCC Merger Policy with No Fed Companion in Sight

In remarks today emphasizing the need for a more transparent bank-merger process, Acting Comptroller Hsu announced that the OCC will today release an NPR eliminating the possibility that merger applications will be approved solely by the passage of time.

Warren Starts the New Year with Political Pressure on Fed Policy

Reiterating concerns about high interest rates, Sen. Warren (D-MA) along with Sens. Hickenlooper (D-CO), Rosen (D-NV) and Whitehouse (D-RI) today sent a letter to Chair Powell calling on him to reverse rate hikes, citing its impact on the current affordable housing crisis.

Daily012924.pdf…

22 01, 2024

DAILY012224

Eliza Allen2024-01-22T16:57:16-05:00January 22nd, 2024|2- Daily Briefing|

FRB Reconsiders Interchange-Fee Cuts

Bowing to critics in the banking industry and on the Board, the Federal Reserve today extended the comment period on its debit-card interchange fee proposal (see FSM report INTERCHANGE12) by a surprisingly-long ninety days to May 12. The extension is in part due to the Board’s decision to publish additional interchange fee cap data which may have persuaded the Board that the initial data analysis supporting a mandatory pricing reduction was incorrect.

OIG Finds Reserve-Bank Trades Legal, But Problematic

The Federal Reserve’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) today released long-awaited reviews of personal trades by former Dallas and Boston Reserve Bank Presidents two years ago that raised numerous and often vociferous assertions of conflicts of interest. Indeed, Sen. Warren (D-MA) stated that she believed these epitomized a “culture of corruption” at the Fed, introducing bipartisan legislation to force considerably more transparency at the Reserve Banks.

FSB Plans Global Run-Risk Buffers

The head of the Financial Stability Board, Secretary General John Schindler, today briefed media on the global regulator’s plans to brief the G20 in October about viral-run risk and the standards needed to avert it. Mr. Schindler said little about what the FSB is likely to propose although the Basel Committee is now considering rewrites to global LCR and NSFR standards likely to be reflected in the FSB’s recommendations.

Daily012224.pdf…

17 01, 2024

DAILY011724

Eliza Allen2024-01-17T16:21:16-05:00January 17th, 2024|2- Daily Briefing|

CFPB Tries to Bring Overdraft Fees Under New Benchmark

Arguing that overdraft fees are a big-bank “junk-fee harvesting machine,” CFPB Director Chopra today released a long-awaited proposal to cap fees to what the agency considers a reasonable threshold.

Bowman Expands Basel Critique, Key Dem Now Points to Problems

In remarks today, FRB Gov. Bowman did not go quite as far as her colleague Chris Waller yesterday, but she nonetheless urged that the end-game rules be re-proposed after comments are taken into account.

Senate Banking GOP Again Urges Capital Proposal Withdrawal

Senate Banking Ranking Member Scott (R-SC) along with all Committee Republicans late yesterday sent a letter to FRB Chair Powell, FDIC Chairman Gruenberg, and Acting Comptroller Hsu once again calling on the regulators to withdraw the capital proposal (see FSM Report CAPITAL230).

Biden, Brown Praise CFPB Overdraft Proposal

Following the CFPB’s announcement of its proposed rule regarding overdraft fees today, President Biden again denounced “junk fees” as “exploitation,” and included the CFPB’s proposal in his administration’s efforts to lower costs for American consumers.

FRB/FDIC Provide Limited-Time Resolution-Plan Filing Flexibility

Reflecting a problem we identified in our assessment of the resolution-plan proposal (see FSM Report LIVINGWILL22), the FRB and FDIC today extended the resolution plan submission deadline for categories II and III banks from July 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.

Global Regulators Turn to OTC-Derivative Margin Improvement

Following yesterday’s release with the CPMI focused on CCPs and clearing members, the Basel Committee and IOSCO today …

18 12, 2023

DAILY121823

Eliza Allen2023-12-18T17:12:20-05:00December 18th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

House Dems Press Tax-Equity Bond Capital Fix

Emphasizing their strong support for the capital proposals, 107 Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) have sent a letter to Chair Powell, Chair Gruenberg, and Acting Comptroller Hsu again asking for revised treatment for clean energy tax-equity bonds.

Updated GSIB Indicator Amounts Now Effective

The Fed today published updated Aggregate Global Indicator Amounts pursuant to its GSIB surcharge rule (see Client Report GSIB5).

FSB Finds U.S. NBFI Assets Continue to Dwarf Banks

The FSB today released its 2023 Global NBFI monitoring report, finding that NBFIs continue to hold a larger percentage of financial assets than banks in the U.S.

DOJ/FTC Stand Firm on New Anti-Concentration Merger Policy

Justice and the FTC today released the final version of new merger guidelines, softening but not clearly weakening the agencies’ draft (see FSM Report MERGER12).

Warren, Allies Attack Hsu’s Preemption Policy

Making it clear that Acting Comptroller Hsu will have challenges from Democrats should the White House ever nominate him as Comptroller, seven Democrats led by Sen. Warren (D-MA) sent him a letter today accusing the agency of overstepping and abusing its preemption authority.

McHenry Asks CFPB to Change Open-Banking Secondary Data Approach

HFSC Chairman McHenry (R-NC) today sent a comment letter to CFPB Director Chopra reiterating the support expressed at a recent hearing (see Client Report CONSUMER53), for the agency’s open banking proposal (see FSM Report DATA4), but now asking for changes related to …

3 11, 2023

DAILY110323

Eliza Allen2023-11-03T17:39:35-04:00November 3rd, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

FSOC Advances Designation Framework, Ready to Deploy

The FSOC today voted unanimously to finalize the Council’s analytic framework for financial stability risk identification (see FSM Report SYSTEMIC95) and guidance on nonbank financial company systemic designations (see FSM Report SIFI35). FedFin will soon provide clients with in-depth reports on each item. In addition to minor clarifications to the analytic framework, the Council importantly decided not to add cost-benefit analysis. Further, the final nonbank designation guidance is unchanged from the proposal, meaning that designation standards will not require a determination of imminent threat to financial stability.

Daily110323.pdf…

1 11, 2023

DAILY110123

Eliza Allen2023-11-01T16:52:56-04:00November 1st, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Vance, GOP Seek to Reverse New Immigration Credit Ruling

Following a joint CFPB-DOJ statement asserting that financial institutions’ “unnecessary or overbroad reliance” on immigration status in a credit decision may violate the ECOA, Sen. Vance (R-OH) along with all Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee today sent a scathing letter to CFPB Director Chopra and DOJ AG Garland urging the regulators to retract it on legal and financial stability grounds.

Congress Takes on SEC Custody Construct

Members of Congress are mobilizing against the SEC’s custody proposal (see FSM Report CUSTODY5) following yesterday’s block-buster GAO ruling against the SEC’s SAB 121 ruling, a ruling with considerable impact also in the broader custody rewrite. Republicans responded to the GAO with anticipated demands for rapid Congressional Review Act repeal.

Powell Pledges Fed Capital Consensus

In the midst of much monetary-policy discussion today, Chair Powell now said more publicly that the Fed will work towards consensus on controversial capital rules. Rep. Barr (R-KY) previously said Mr. Powell assured him that the final rule will reflect the Board of Governors as a whole, encouraging Rep. Barr and others that Vice Chair Barr will need to modulate some of the proposal’s most controversial provisions.

Daily110123.pdf…

26 10, 2023

DAILY102623

Eliza Allen2023-10-26T16:48:48-04:00October 26th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Senate Banking Focuses on Rapid-Fire Administration Action to Sanction Iran, Curb Hamas, Govern Crypto

Today’s Senate Banking Hearing on Illicit Finance and Terrorism showcased continued bipartisan support for stronger Iranian sanctions as well as for secondary sanctions on traditional financial institutions and cryptoasset firms facilitating terrorism. In addition to highlighting their bipartisan measure targeting DeFi-related money laundering and sanctions evasion, Sens. Reed (D-RI) and Warner (D-VA) noted that they are working on a bill that would apply secondary sanctions on banks and DeFi entities that transact with foreign parties that facilitate terrorist financing.

Bipartisan Small-Business Leadership Opens New End-Game Front

Opening a new front of Congressional concern about the capital proposal’s credit impacts, House Small Business Economic Growth Subcommittee Chairman Meuser (R-PA) along with Ranking Member Landsman (D-OH) and two others today sent a letter to FRB Chairman Powell and Vice Chair Barr “imploring” them to commission a comprehensive review of the capital proposal’s effects on small business lending. They also ask that all the agencies counteract any negative repercussions of the proposal, noting that this might entail significantly easing capital requirements.

Daily102623.pdf…

24 10, 2023

DAILY102423

Eliza Allen2023-10-24T17:18:54-04:00October 24th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

McHenry, Barr Blast Basel Adherence in End-Game Regs

Although today’s hearing challenging regulatory actions aligned with global regulators was postponed, HFSC Chairman McHenry (R-NC) and Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chairman Barr (R-KY) today kept up the pressure, releasing a letter to the GAO commissioning a study of the end-game rules.

New CRA Reg Sets Controversial, Complex Standards

Leading the way to certain inter-agency approval, the Federal Reserve today voted 6-1 to approve a final version of their 2022 controversial proposal (see FSM Report CRA32).

FDIC OIG: Supervisors Missed So Much, Acted So Slowly re SBNY

The FDIC’s OIG report today on SBNY’s failure follows much of the line the Fed’s OIG took when it came on the material-loss review of SVB’s collapse.

House Republicans Pressure Biden on $6 Billion Iran Ransom

Although HFSC continues to cancel all its hearings as the speakership battle continues, its Oversight Subcommittee today optimistically released a memo outlining goals for Thursday’s Iran-sanctions hearing.

Treasury Presses CSPs to Negotiate With Banks

Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Graham Steele today highlighted Treasury’s work with cloud service providers (CSPs) to improve transparency and security.

Divided FDIC Advances CRA Rewrite, Climate-Risk Principles

As anticipated, the FDIC on a 3-2 vote joined the Fed in approving a 1400+ page final CRA rule.

Daily102423.pdf…

20 10, 2023

DAILY102023

Eliza Allen2023-10-20T17:21:03-04:00October 20th, 2023|2- Daily Briefing|

Senate AI Measure Tackles Financial Services

The text of the key Senate AI bill, S. 3050, has now become available.

Banking Agencies Offer Olive Branch

Reflecting strong pressure and recent FRB Chair Powell statements, the FRB today announced the launch of an open data collection assessing the rule’s effects – an issue on which many bank comment letters and Congressional Republicans have been scathing.

GOP Renew Funding Campaign vs. CFPB via Fed Losses

HFSC Vice Chairman Hill (R-AR) yesterday reintroduced legislation pressuring both the Fed and CFPB by prohibiting the Fed from transferring its earnings to the Bureau if the Fed incurs an operating loss.

FinCEN Highlights Hamas Sanction Red Flags

Reflecting ongoing Congressional pressure and recent Treasury sanctions, FinCEN today issued an alert reminding financial institutions to remain vigilant for suspicious activity related to Hamas funding sources.

Fed Stays Stoic on Financial-Stability Outlook

The FRB today released is semiannual financial-stability report differing little from the relatively-sanguine outlook in its May report (see Client Report SYSTEMIC94).

Daily102023.pdf…