During their most recent meeting, the Financial Stability Oversight Council revealed that the asset management sector remains an area of concern to the super-regulator. According to minutes of the November 2, 2015 meeting,  the FSOC has identified six categories of potential risk arising from the asset management sector and is conducting ongoing analyses with an eye toward more regulation.  Treasury Secretary and Chairman of the FSOC, Jack Lew, indicated that updates on the Council's analysis of these risk areas and perhaps regulatory recommendations could be expected early in 2016.  In addition, members of the Council have taken to the press to head off legislative interference. 

For many years, banks have provided borrower default indemnification as part of their securities lending services, which has given beneficial owners additional assurance as to the safety of their lending programs, and has allowed pension funds and others for whom such indemnity is legally required to participate in the securities lending market as well.  Up until now, banks offering this kind of guarantee have not been required to reserve capital for the associated contingency, and indemnification costs have typically been bundled into the overall fee for services agreed to by beneficial owners and their agents.  Lately, however, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and others have questioned whether this kind of indemnification is a source of stress on the balance sheets of banks, and potentially a threat to financial stability. Also, banking and other regulators are exploring whether borrower default indemnification should be swept into new Basel III leverage ratios and reserve capital requirement, which could make indemnification unviable.