SIFIs

The "too big to fail" debate raises a critical question that is seldom asked, much less answered: Do megabanks serve a critical function that justifies their undeniable risk to the financial system?

The Office of Financial Research released a study showing that the Federal Reserve's stress testing models may be undercounting banks' exposures to credit default swaps by not considering indirect exposures.

Policymakers need to closely study whether new regulations are hampering liquidity in the fixed-income market, a prominent banker and regulators said Monday.

President Obama on Monday defended his administration's record on financial reform and the performance of officials he put in charge of implementing it, responding to critics in both parties who have claimed that the financial system is less safe since the 2008 financial crisis.

Having banks hold fortress balance sheets and be limited to traditional intermediation would require giving them monopoly status over certain products.

The Federal Reserve Board unanimously voted to release a proposal Friday to limit the exposures between systemically risky bank holding companies in a move that reflects not only an evolution in the agency's finesse but a change in the pressures it is facing.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Stability Oversight Council said Wednesday that it would not rescind its designation of the insurance giant MetLife as a systemically important financial institution, a move that comes as the firm's legal challenge to that label is being mulled in federal court.

In almost any other election cycle, bankers would be celebrating the fact that a Republican candidate has emerged so far in front of the pack and would quickly fall in line behind him. But this has been anything but a normal election cycle, and there are a whole host of reasons that bankers will be at least as reluctant to embrace the outspoken businessman Donald Trump as the Republican establishment has been.

JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon added to his defenses of megabanks, arguing that regional and community banks rely on them. The comments could inflame tensions among banks instead of easing them.

Big-bank representatives agree with the concept behind the Fed's "total loss absorbing capacity" proposal but argue that certain provisions are excessive and onerous.

With the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. poised to announce the results, it's not clear who should be the most nervous: banks, regulators or the American people.

Survey results of voter attitudes from competitive swing districts indicate that the 2010 financial law is ripe for reform.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board released an interim rule Thursday implementing a congressionally mandated reduction in the Fed dividend for banks with over $10 billion in assets.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is moving forward with a plan to force big banks to keep better track of their insured deposits.

While little is known about what regulators are weighing as they grade the 12 biggest firms' resolution plans, experts deeply familiar with the process are speculating that liquidity could be a determining factor in whether the plans are deemed credible or sent back to the drawing board.

In what could be seen as a Nixon-to-China moment, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, a former Goldman Sachs executive and one of the architects of Treasury's bailout of the largest banks, said that breaking up the big banks and turning them into public utilities may be the only way to solve "too big to fail."

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said Congress hasn't gone far enough to protect the U.S. economy from potential crises and unveiled plans to study options for regulators that include breaking up the nation's largest financial institutions.

Lawmakers opted for broadening the focus and makeup of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, but a more focused systemic risk regulator would have had a better chance of success.

Large banks are not buying preferential treatment by contributing to her campaign, Hillary Clinton insisted again on Thursday, attempting to rebut charges leveled at her by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Senate Banking Committee members pushed Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen Thursday for some indication of whether the central bank would approve banks' so-called "living wills" or instead will force asset sales and other steps to simplify their structures.