Fed Vice Chair Quarles Calls for Significant Changes to the Supervisory Process: Implications and Open Questions for the Banking Industry

6 February 2020
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Key takeaways:
  • In a recent speech to the American Bar Association Banking Law Committee, Vice Chair Randal Quarles called for greater “transparency and clarity” in the Federal Reserve Board’s framework for supervising financial institutions and introduced a series of steps the agency may take to that end.
  • The Vice Chair’s recommendations address large bank supervision, improved transparency, and overall supervisory process improvements. The recommendations suggest that the Federal Reserve Board may be entering a period of greater and more productive engagement with the financial industry, and greater alliance with the general norms and practices of U.S. administrative law.
  • This analysis summarizes Vice Chair Quarles’s speech, discusses its potential implications for the banking industry, and considers how the Federal Reserve Board may implement and improve upon the Vice Chair’s recommendations.