On Tuesday, August 3, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a full hearing at 9:00 a.m. CDT titled “Oversight of Regulators: Does our Financial System Work for Everyone? [1]”
There are currently approximately 12 agencies regulating the nation’s financial system.
- The Federal Reserve, which sets nation’s monetary policy, regulates banks.
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) serves as the supervisory body over all national banks and federal savings associations.
- The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) regulates credit unions, while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures funds deposited with banks.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversees publicly-held companies and the securities markets.
- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options.
- The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.
- The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets.
- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the U.S. standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories.
- The National Futures Association (NFA) is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the U.S. derivatives industry, including on-exchange traded futures, retail off-exchange foreign currency (Forex) and OTC derivatives.
- And of course, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) serves as regulator over consumer financial products and services.
In a 2018 article on Marketplace.com [2], Hal Scott, international financial systems professor [2] at Harvard Law School, said “I don’t know of another major country that has anything close to it. For instance, to take England by comparison, they have a bank regulator and one market regulator. That’s it. Japan, they have actually a single regulator of everything.”
Will similar streamlining come to our regulatory makeup as well? A panel of witnesses including the Honorable Todd M. Harper [3], Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); the Honorable Jelena McWilliams [4], Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); and Michael J. Hsu [5], Acting Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will discuss this and much more this coming Tuesday.
Click here [1] for more information on this event.
Here's what else is happening in The Week Ahead:
- MBA’s Forbearance and Call Volume Survey [6] (Monday)
- U.S. Census Bureau Value of Construction Put in Place Survey [7] (Monday)
- CoreLogic Home Price Index [8] (Wednesday)
- MBA Weekly Applications Survey [9] (Wednesday)
- CoreLogic's Webinar: North American Update [10] (Wednesday)
- Realtor.com Weekly Housing Market Recap [11] (Wednesday)
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey [12] (Thursday)
- U.S. Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report [13] (Thursday)
- Black Knight weekly forbearance data [14] (Friday)