#Project Hamilton – Federal Financial Analytics

22 12, 2022

DAILY122222

Eliza Allen2022-12-22T16:43:24-05:00December 22nd, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Waters Blasts ICE/BKI Merger

Although HFSC Chair Waters (D-CA) frequently opposes large-bank mergers, her stand today against the ICE/Black Knight deal is the first time we can recall her taking a public stand on a transaction before the Federal Trade Commission (outside HFSC’s jurisdiction).

Toomey Sets Agenda for GOP Fed Reform

Among his parting shots, Senate Banking Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) yesterday introduced legislation to reform the Federal Reserve System.

Toomey Also Tries to Set Stablecoin Agenda

In another effort to set the terms of debate before he departs, Senate Banking Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) also introduced a new version of his initial stablecoin legislation (see FSM Report CRYPTO27).

Warren Doubts Zelle’s Fraud Policy Changes

Continuing her campaign against Zelle fraud, Sen. Warren (D-MA) today sent a letter to the CEO of Zelle’s parent company demanding a briefing on pending efforts to compensate consumers for fraudulent transfers.

CFPB Cites ARM Risks, Rewards

The CFPB today issued a consumer alert describing the risks associated with various mortgage products during a period of rising interest rates.

Project Hamilton Ducks CBDC-Feasibility Decision

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston today announced the completion of its Project Hamilton work with MIT on a U.S. CBDC.

Fed to Reconsider Key Bank-Control Criteria

Although the banking agencies today reiterated that their policy is not generally to require reporting of loans to potentially controlling principal-fund complexes or banks that meet passivity requirements, the Fed will now reconsider relevant rules in this sector.

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2 12, 2022

DAILY120222

Eliza Allen2022-12-02T16:51:39-05:00December 2nd, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Menendez Blasts FRB-Chicago Choice

Continuing his campaign for increased diversity and transparency at the Federal Reserve, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) issued a fiery statement criticizing the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s decision to name a non-Latino president.

Fed Revises PSR to Prepare for FedNow

The FRB today finalized changes to its Policy on Payment System Risk (PSR) to expand access to collateralized intraday credit. These reduce the administrative steps associated with requesting collateralized capacity, action the Fed says would improve intraday liquidity management and payment flows while also assisting the Reserve Banks managing intraday credit risk.

GOP Expands CBDC Attack to Project Hamilton

Readying an inquiry intended to block CBDC when the GOP takes over the house next year, Ranking Member McHenry (R-NC) and six other HFSC Republicans sent a letter to FRB Boston President Susan Collins demanding answers to allegations that private companies are abusing their work on Project Hamilton to position themselves for product sales to financial companies once a CBDC begins.

Fed Finally Outs Climate-Risk Principles

As long anticipated and likely late on Friday in hopes of avoiding critical GOP scrutiny, the Federal Reserve Board today released proposed climate-risk principles. These are “high-level” as is also the case for global edicts in this contentious arena (see FSM Report CLIMATE14), also tracking the OCC’s longstanding like-kind proposal (see FSM Report GREEN12).

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7 02, 2022

DAILY020722

Eliza Allen2023-04-05T13:35:42-04:00February 7th, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

FDIC Takes New, Unsurprising Direction
Upon taking office over the weekend, Acting FDIC Chairman Gruenberg released a new set of agency priorities.

Fed Lawyers Press for Regulated Crypto Prior to Payment-System Access
In sharp contrast to the economic and often then even theoretical focus of many Fed research papers, Fed lawyers last week released a note assessing the legal underpinnings of U.S. money and the issues they present for rapid evolution in tandem with increasing digitalization.

Toomey Heightens Raskin Opposition
Following up last week’s contentious hearing (see Client Report FEDERALRESERVE69), Senate Banking Ranking Member Toomey (R-PA) today sent Vice Chair-nominee Raskin a formal request for information on her relationship to a fintech company that unusually obtained a Fed master account.

Fed Reiterates Anti-DLT Construct for CBDC
As we noted last week, the FRB’s CBDC technology team known as Project Hamilton has determined an array of significant CBDC benefits but also found that DLT is not its preferred system infrastructure.

HFSC to Debate Stablecoins, Not Start Action on Them
Today’s HFSC staff memo makes it clear that tomorrow’s hearing will be a platform for both Congressional — or at least Democratic — support for the PWG’s stablecoin report (see Client Report CRYPTO21).

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3 02, 2022

Daily020322

Arezou Rafikian2023-04-05T14:01:47-04:00February 3rd, 2022|2- Daily Briefing|

Fed Study Presages House Two-Tier Stablecoin Standards
A new Federal Reserve staff note recommends a different approach to stablecoin innovation than that proposed by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (see Client Report CRYPTO21).

Fed’s Project Hamilton: CBDC Advances Payment Functionality, Outdoes DLT
The Boston Fed and MIT today published findings from Phase 1 of their CBDC research initiative “Project Hamilton,” which has now successfully created a core processing engine for a hypothetical CBDC. Results also demonstrate an array of other CBDC capabilities, a finding sure to factor into the Fed’s thinking about the pace of CBDC implementation once it makes more progress on the basic “what-if” questions in its discussion draft (see FSM Report CBDC10).

McWilliams Outlines How FDIC Insurance Could Cover Stablecoins
Although Jay Powell delivered his all-important annual address atop a virtual Wyoming mountain, the Federal Reserve is nonetheless mired in the Big Muddy.

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