Randal Quarles

The new vice chair for supervision selected a career Federal Reserve staffer to oversee the implementation of his supervisory and regulatory policies. Progressives had been urging him to pick an outsider for the position.

The president has a chance to make his mark on the central bank as the terms of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles near their end. He will face pressure from progressives to pick reform-minded leaders, while moderate Democrats and Republicans in the narrowly divided Senate might favor reappointing Powell.

Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles says the benefits of a central bank digital currency are “unclear,” and that a digital dollar could actually “pose significant and concrete risks.”

Randal Quarles, the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, says the central bank was wise not to require banks to build capital cushions in the lead-up to the pandemic. But that decision rested on a misleading a narrative and could wind up threatening the economic recovery.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles suggested that the massive influx of reserves stemming from the central bank's COVID-19 response may lead to a recalibration of the supplementary leverage ratio.

The Federal Reserve's Randal Quarles, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, sought to fend off criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren that the central bank treated with kid gloves some foreign banks under its jurisdiction that later took heavy losses. The hearing also featured a discussion about a new framework for digital assets.

During a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Democrats largely praised the policy decisions of acting regulators named by the Biden administration and knocked their predecessors. But Republicans warned that moves to reverse Trump-era policies would leave financial institutions without a clear road map.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Randal Quarles has made it clear that banks failing to make the transition away from the benchmark rate could face supervisory consequences.

The Federal Reserve's top supervisory official, Randal Quarles, says regulators need to get a stronger grasp of digital currencies in order to supervise them. His comments Thursday follow reports that several large banks have started offering clients the ability to invest in bitcoin funds.

The central bank should consider using a tool requiring higher capital amounts when times are good rather than offering temporary regulatory relief in a downturn, said Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren.

For banks that pass this year’s stress tests, the Federal Reserve said it will eliminate the restrictions on dividends and share buybacks while subjecting those institutions instead to the stress capital buffer.

Legacy contracts using the London interbank offered rate — which is set to be phased out at the end of this year — were granted a reprieve to mid-2023. However, there is no wiggle room on when the rate will expire for new deals, said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Randal Quarles.

The Federal Reserve imposed the restrictions after conducting supplemental stress tests tied to the pandemic. But Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles says it is now clear banks would have had sufficient capital regardless.

Nineteen of the nation's largest banks must show how they'd withstand pressures in the commercial real estate and corporate debt markets that would accompany a severe global recession.

The central bank is exploring how to improve the consistency and transparency of safety and soundness scores used to grade banks and their holding companies, the agency’s vice chairman of supervision said.

Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles said the agency wants to figure out why banks are holding on to capital that could be used more aggressively to respond to the pandemic.

Global regulators are preparing to tighten restrictions on companies believed to have threatened the financial system at the height of pandemic-fueled volatility.

Regulators in the spring temporarily eased a key benchmark of balance-sheet strength to allow institutions to help customers navigate the pandemic, but Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Randal Quarles said it would be “premature” right now to suspend it for good.

The agency has scheduled an extra assessment of institutions' strength to incorporate more recent economic data during the pandemic.

A top Federal Reserve official is issuing a warning about fast-growing and largely unregulated shadow lenders: They were a big factor in why central banks had to save markets earlier this year, and much more needs to be done to assess the risks posed by the sector.