D.A. Davidson Director of Wealth Management Research James Ragan will review and analyze the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

The Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision says the board is discussing ways to address the various concerns banks have raised about the capital reform proposal.

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.

Federal Reserve officials have hammered home the importance of bank readiness to borrow from the discount window. Getting banks to actually do so may require the Fed to make structural improvements to the system.

"Don't fight the Fed" is the mantra of investors. But, when the Fed does not allow banks to meet the needs of their communities and shareholders through unfair regulations, like the politically motivated CRA final rule, bankers have no choice but to go to court to seek regulatory justice.

The rule updates requirements for how systemically important clearing networks prepare for and respond to operational risks.

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.

The chair of the House Financial Services Committee called the last resort lending facility "a generation behind" broader capital markets. He said modernization should be part of the Federal Reserve's response to last year's bank failures.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he'd like to see the central bank's holdings of mortgage-backed securities go to zero. 

The proposed capital rule risks driving borrowers away from the traditional banking industry and into the arms of shadow banks, whose support during stressful times can be fleeting.