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Working Paper
The supervisory framework surrounding nonbank participation in the U.S. retail payments system : an overview
Nonbank providers of payment services are important in the United States and appear to have become more prominent in recent years. This development, by itself, poses unique risks to the payments system. Associated with this change is a significant transformation in the mix of payment types away from checks and towards electronic payments, which introduces new risks to the payments system and potentially compounds the risks posed by increased reliance on nonbank providers of payment services. This paper reviews these recent developments in the retail payments system, discusses the associated ...
Working Paper
Nonbanks in the payments system
Nonbanks have always been a key component of the nation's payments system. In recent years, however, nonbanks have become even more prominent. This heightened visibility raises several questions. In which payments activities are nonbanks engaged? What roles do nonbanks play in specific payments types? What types of risk are potentially associated with nonbank participation? This paper begins to address these questions. Preliminary findings include: (1) Nonbanks are involved in a myriad of activities and roles, both in traditional and emerging payments types; (2) Nonbank business relationships ...
Working Paper
Dollarization Waves: New Evidence from a Comprehensive International Bond Database
We investigate how the U.S. dollar's prominence in the denomination of international debt securities has evolved in recent decades, using a comprehensive global dataset with far more extensive coverage than datasets used in prior literature. We find no monotonic dollarization or de-dollarization trend; instead, the dollar's share exhibits a wavelike pattern. We document three dollarization waves since the 1960s. The last wave, following the global financial crisis, lifted the dollar's share nearly back to its level at the euro's launch in 2000. Our findings are robust to composition and ...
Journal Article
Nonbank banks: catalyst for interstate banking
Newsletter
How the U.S. Treasury Futures Market and the Basis Trade Could Be Affected by the Treasury Clearing Mandate: Part 2—The Possible Role of Cross-Margining
In part 2 of this Chicago Fed Letter series, I delve further into the implications of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent mandate requiring transactions for both U.S. Treasury cash securities and repurchase agreements (repos) to be cleared and settled through an authorized central counterparty (CCP). In part 1, I provided a primer on the Treasury futures market and the Treasury cash–futures basis trade and touched on the possible impact of the SEC mandate on both. Here, I explain in greater detail how the mandate could affect the cost and functioning of the basis ...
Working Paper
The importance of check-cashing businesses to the unbanked: racial/ethnic differences
The roughly 9.5 percent of all U.S. families that are without some type of transaction account (unbanked) are disproportionately represented by minorities. The unbanked often must rely on alternative ways to carry out basic financial transactions such as cashing payroll checks and paying bills. This study analyzes unique survey data and finds that a consumer's decision to patronize check-cashing businesses is jointly made with the decision to be unbanked. For the unbanked, these businesses are an important source for financial services. Attributes that contribute to these decisions, however, ...
Newsletter
How the U.S. Treasury Futures Market and the Basis Trade Could Be Affected by the Treasury Clearing Mandate: Part 1—A Primer
A recent mandate by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) aims to improve the resilience and transparency of markets for U.S. Treasury cash securities and repurchase agreements (repos) by requiring transactions for both be cleared and settled through an authorized central counterparty (CCP). I explore the implications of this mandate for Treasury markets and central clearing in a two-part Chicago Fed Letter series. Part 1 is a primer on Treasury futures and the Treasury cash–futures basis trade—two key features of the Treasury markets that could also be affected by the mandate.
Conference Paper
Reaching out to the unbanked