March 2025. Good a time as any to relitigate the root causes of the global financial crisis.
Very interesting to Bessent lead his remarks today in bank rules, as finreg hasn’t exactly been a top priority in this administration. Also notable he throws cold water on the idea of consolidating the bank regulators.
Interesting. Michael Barr just said he won’t even serve on the Fed’s internal bank supervision and regulation committee after he steps down as vice chair for supervision at the end of the month. Totally out of the bank reg game but remaining a Fed governor.
Busy times. Signal in bio. Always happy to chat.
Hill meets Hill in high-stakes Hill meeting.
Sigh, have a feeling this is gonna get old.
Our story on Barr consulting lawyers ahead of a potential Trump fight: www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...
Scoop: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr has been in talks with outside lawyers regarding his options should President-elect Donald Trump attempt to remove him from his post: sources
Actually not noteworthy, because the figures actually show the assets at "problem banks" rose BY $3 billion to $87 billion (from $84 billion). Perils of handing an English major a document with a bunch of numbers in it.
Potentially noteworthy -- the FDIC said in its latest report on quarterly bank profits that two banks were added to its "problem bank" list (reserved for banks with particularly low supervisory scores), and the total assets at said banks jumped from $3 billion to $87 billion.
New: The CFPB continues work on rulewriting in the final weeks of the Biden administration, eyeing new rules removing medical debt from credit reports and new restrictions on data brokers. Stands in contrast to other bank regulators who are pencils down:
www.reuters.com/markets/us/u...
With Elon Musk calling for the deletion of the CFPB over on X, I checked and there were, in fact, two bills introduced in this Congress to eliminate the agency. They both went nowhere and garnered single-digit cosponsors:
www.congress.gov/bill/118th-c...
www.congress.gov/bill/118th-c...
Just flagging that Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, who has been floated for potential Trump regulatory posts, gave a speech on "pragmatic" policymaking yesterday...in West Palm Beach (home to Mar-a-Lago): www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...
One main regs takeaway from today's hearing is none of the regulators appear to be entertaining big notions of rushing stuff out the door before the Trump admin takes power.
The House Financial Services Committee has pretty quickly gone off the rails. Rep. Meeks chastising Republicans for criticizing Gruenberg for FDIC issues, while being silent on issues around Trump, Gaetz, etc.
Rep. Maxine Waters is opening today's hearing with the bank regulators by harshly criticizing...Matt Gaetz.
HFSC Chairman Patrick McHenry opens the hearing by declaring FDIC Chairman Gruenberg's recently announced plans to retire in January as "too little, too late."
Morning, Bluesky. We've got the bank regulators testifying before House Financial Services in what is sure to be a very normal and chill hearing.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren is throwing brushback pitches at the Fed over the Wells Fargo asset cap: www.reuters.com/business/fin...
5/ But perhaps most significantly, Warren now will enjoy a bigger committee staff and bigger budget. That means more capacity to press the industry, explore potential wrongdoing, and generally do Elizabeth Warren things.
4/ If Warren is blasting banks and attacking GOP initiatives, it’s tougher now for moderate Democrats to significantly separate from that. Tradeoff is she may moderate a bit (may) — Sherrod Brown was much like Warren lower on the committee but tempered a bit once he hit the top post.
3/ While it’s true she won’t set the agenda and Warren has already carved out a niche mounting attacks from the committee perch, Warren’s new role adds a few more factors. For one, she now effectively sets the tone for Democrats on the panel.
2/ It’s true banks are not happy about this — industry folks reached out to Sen. Mark Warner to see if he’d drop his top spot on Senate Intelligence to leapfrog her. But some people have also argued it may not amount to much since she is in the minority and can’t set the committee’s agenda.
1/ With it now official that Elizabeth Warren is going to be the top Democrat on Senate Banking (her statement attached), a few thoughts on why that’s significant and what it could mean for the banking industry she has made a career out of blasting.
Shoutout to the last time there was a government panel devoted to finding efficiencies in the federal government: thehill.com/homenews/hou...
Tired: Banks are reluctant to sue their regulators due to concerns it could complicate the supervisory dynamic.
Wired:
Our latest: Wall Street players and lobbyists are already drawing up wish lists for lighter rules from the second Trump administration, as the transition solicits input:
www.reuters.com/markets/us/w...
Some early tea leaves on who is in the mix for the Trump finreg team — lots of familiar names from the first go, and by all accounts this transition running much faster than 2016: www.reuters.com/business/fin...
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fortune.com/2023/10/17/t...
Michael Barr makes his first comments on bank reg since Basel proposal released (at ABA, no less). Upshot is basically, “We hear your gripes, but still think this is worthwhile.”
www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...
Kicking off this new venture by linking to my colleague Douglas Gillison’s great story on the deep and tricky issues that await any effort to overhaul bank supervision after SVB: www.reuters.com/business/fin...
