Politics

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at the Federal Open Market Committee press conference Wednesday that a slower pace of reduction could help the central bank avoid shrinking its holdings further without disrupting the banking system.

While some said the agency was ignorant of its own rules, one trade group praised the goals of the posting.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent separate letters to banking regulators on the anniversary of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, with Hagerty questioning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s sale of Signature Bank's assets and Warren urging the regulators to tighten capital and liquidity requirements.

The head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Biden Administration said she will transition from public life starting March 22.

Regulatory reform – rather than Biden's proposed solutions – is needed to fix the inventory crisis, some say, but others applauded the president's buyer cost-cutting initiatives.

During a contentious exchange on his second day of congressional testimony this week, the Federal Reserve chair drew a line between the central bank's response to last year's bank failures and its current capital proposal.

In congressional testimony, the Federal Reserve chair said the Board of Governors is processing the comments on its capital reform proposal. Putting forth an entirely new proposal is "very plausible."

The letter, which was sent to bank regulators, represents a further escalation of lawmaker criticism of the Basel III endgame proposal, and comes just as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify in the House Financial Services Committee.

Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, led the letter, spurred by the recent merger announcement between Capital One and Discover, which the letter said would enable the merged company "to influence multiple points of the marketplace."

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said in a speech Tuesday that banks might need to establish margin to counteract counterparty risks presented by private funds.