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Formal Regulatory Remedies

FDIC’s Hoenig Offers Market-Based Cure for Regulatory Ills

by | Tuesday, May 23, 2017 | , ,

In a keynote address before the Systemic Risk and Organization of the Financial System Conference in California on May 12, 2017 FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig announced his novel market-based proposal to strengthen the financial system and provide regulatory relief and foster long-term economic growth. According to Hoenig, even after the financial crisis, “the U.S. financial system remains heavily subsidized, increasingly concentrated, and, despite a host of new efforts to safeguard the system, it continues to be vulnerable to inevitable financial shocks.”

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CFTC Chair Highlights Effect of Regulation on Liquidity

by | Saturday, May 20, 2017 | ,

In a May 10, 2017 address, acting Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) J. Christopher Giancarlo highlighted some unintended consequences regulation is having on the swaps markets. In his speech before the International Swaps and Derivatives Association 32nd Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal Giancarlo talked about the changes to swaps trading liquidity, market fragmentation and regulatory comity in the post-reform global swaps markets. After providing an overview of how some aspects of the misapplication and miscalibration of regulatory reforms were harming global liquidity, he provided some astute observations on how to alleviate some of the harm being done to swaps markets in particular.

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Fed General Counsel Addresses the New Compliance Landscape

by | Monday, May 15, 2017 | ,

In a May 9th Address, Michael Held, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, gave his thoughts on the new compliance landscape. Held told his audience at SIFMA’s Compliance and Legal Society Monthly Luncheon that in recent years the role of compliance within supervised financial institutions has grown dramatically in size, scope, and relevance. He also said that since the financial crisis, risk and compliance functions have grown in respect and stature across the financial services industry. Despite this new stature, however, those charged with monitoring compliance at financial institutions face an environment that has become perhaps “too rules-based.” Held offered his thoughts on firms and compliance personnel can meet these new challenges.

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CFTC Seeks Input on Simplifying Regulations

by | Sunday, May 07, 2017 | , ,

In a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce’s 11th Annual Capital Market Summit, the CFTC’s acting Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo announced a new project to simplify the agency’s regulations. Remarking that, “America’s derivatives markets are struggling, in some cases, under the weight of flawed and excessive regulation,” Chairman Giancarlo introduced the CFTC’s new focus on reinterpreting its regulatory mission consistent with the goals of the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on regulation:

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Are Bank Regulations Harming Small Businesses?

by | Saturday, April 22, 2017 | , ,

A Federal Reserve Report published on April 18, 2017 found that U.S. small businesses are facing hurdles in obtaining much-needed financing for growth. The study indicated that small businesses presently face significantly more stringent credit conditions when approaching their traditional sources of loans for equipment and expansion. The Fed report itself does not point the finger at regulation as the cause for this restriction in the ability of small businesses to access credit. However, large banks have had to tighten credit conditions significantly as a result of increased capital requirements, liquidity restrictions, and stress tests. Because these big banks are the primary source of the for all business financing in the U.S., and the number one source of loans to small businesses, any restrictions on the flow of financing arising out of new banking regulation will perforce affect small businesses.

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Fed Paper Seeks Optimal Capital Ratio for U.S. Banks

by | Wednesday, April 19, 2017 | , ,

A working paper published on April 3, 2017 by the US Federal Reserve attempts to quantify the costs and benefits of bank capital to arrive at an estimate of the optimal capital ratio for U.S. banks. In their paper,[1] authors Simon Firestone, Amy Lorenc, and Ben Ranish begin their analysis by estimating to what extent the probability of financial crises falls as bank capital rises and calculate the output costs of a financial crisis. Against this cost, the authors then balance the cost of equity, a more expensive source of funding for banks than debt. The authors conclude that interest rates would rise by around seven basis points if banks pass on all of the increase in the cost of capital to borrowers. Balancing the difference between costs and benefits, they estimate that the optimal level of capital is between 13% and 26%.

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Basel Report: “Repo Markets are Not Settled Yet”

by | Saturday, April 15, 2017 | , ,

An April 12, 2017 report issued by the Bank for International Settlement’s Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS) takes stock of the state of repo markets. Drawing on a number of sources, the report surveys the landscape of the repo markets, taking into account the effects of the financial crisis, changes in the regulatory landscape, and the unprecedented period central bank stimulus.

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FSB Launches Holistic Look at Regulatory Reforms

by | Thursday, April 13, 2017 | , ,

With the main elements of the G20’s core financial reforms underway, the Financial Stability (FSB) has proposed a framework to assess the effects of the reforms. In an April 11, 2017 consultation paper, the FSB proposes a structured framework specifying the processes and appropriate analytical approaches for the evaluation of the social benefits and cost of reform measure as well as identifying unintended adverse consequences.

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