Opinions

The Federal Reserve's new chair wants to change the way the central bank communicates with markets and the public. What those changes ultimately amount to could represent a major shift in an agency that has made transparency a guiding light for decades.

William Isaac led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. through the banking and thrift crises of the 1980s and was a frequent commentator on bank regulation after his time in public service.

The longtime Federal Reserve chair served under four presidents and presided over the deregulatory and pro-market push of the 1990s and early 2000s that set the stage for the 2008 mortgage crisis.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Trump administration's attempt to fire nearly two-thirds of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's workforce, upholding a March 2025 injunction.

Chair Travis Hill said the Silicon Valley Bank failure showed banks can't always sell securities fast enough to cover deposit outflows, but acknowledged the "stigma problem" with discount window borrowing remains unsolved.

A potential deletion from a long-standing regulatory definition has banks questioning how to classify vast swaths of their lending books.

The newly minted Fed chairman announced working groups for his five top policy priorities and strictly refrained from forward guidance in his debut press conference Wednesday afternoon.

The clarification spells out what banks can share to stop scams. The Bank Policy Institute welcomed it but wants Congress to write the protection into law.

The Spanish banking giant's pending acquisition of Webster Financial is still awaiting approval from the Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank. The deal is expected to close during the second half of 2026.

Regulators have suggested changes to the ratings system they use to gauge banks' safety and soundness that would reduce scrutiny of management quality. It would leave them blind to clear signs of future problems.