Search Results
Working Paper
Does Price Regulation Affect Competition? Evidence from Credit Card Solicitations
We study the unintended consequences of consumer financial regulations, focusing on the CARD Act, which restricts consumer credit card issuers? ability to raise interest rates. We estimate the competitive responsiveness-the degree to which a credit card issuer changes offered interest rates in response to changes in interest rates offered by its competitors-as a measure of competition in the credit card market. Using small business card offers, which are not subject to the Act, as a control group, we find a significant decline in the competitive responsiveness after the Act. The decline in ...
Working Paper
Macroeconomic Effects of China's Financial Policies
The Chinese economy has undergone three major phases: the 1978?97 period marked as the SOE-led economy, the 1998?2015 phase as the investment-driven economy, and the new normal economy since 2016. All three economies have been shaped by the government financial policies, defined as a set of credit policy, monetary policy, and regulatory policy. We analyze the macroeconomic effects of these financial policies throughout the three phases and provide the stylized facts to substantiate our analysis. The stylized facts differ qualitatively across different phases or economies. We argue that the ...
Briefing
As Earned Wage Access Grows, Oversight Tries to Catch Up
Earned wage access (EWA) services have grown in popularity as more providers offer them and more businesses and consumers use them. However, the complex fee structures and high costs of EWA, as well as some users’ heavy reliance on these services, have raised concerns. Regulatory and legislative bodies have begun to respond to these concerns, with states taking the lead in proposing or passing EWA legislation.
Discussion Paper
Can Decentralized Finance Provide More Protection for Crypto Investors?
Several centralized crypto entities failed in 2022, resulting in the cascading failure of other crypto firms and raising questions about the protection of crypto investors. While the total amount invested in the crypto sector remains small in the United States, more than 10 percent of all Americans are invested in cryptocurrencies. In this post, we examine whether migrating crypto activities from centralized platforms to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols might afford investors better protection, especially in the absence of regulatory changes. We argue that while DeFi provides some ...
Discussion Paper
Credit Market Choice
Credit default swaps (CDS) are frequently credited with being the cause of AIG’s collapse during the financial crisis. A Reuters article from September 2008, for example, notes “[w]hen you hear that the collapse of AIG […] might lead to a systemic collapse of the global financial system, the feared culprit is, largely, that once-obscure […] instrument known as a credit default swap.” Yet, despite the prominent role that CDS played during the financial crisis, little is known about how individual financial institutions utilize CDS contracts on individual companies. In a recent New ...
Banking Agencies Seek Public Comment on CRA Proposal
Federal regulators are proposing changes to regulations for the Community Reinvestment Act, nearly 20 years since the last major overhaul of its rules.
Journal Article
How Dodd–Frank affects small bank costs
Do stricter regulations enacted since the financial crisis pose a significant burden?
Journal Article
Over-the-counter swaps – before and after reform
Now that the main elements of the new regulations can be described, let?s see how a simplified trade would be typically carried out by a fictional set of institutions both before and after the reform.3 First Bank is a large dealer bank that buys and sells securities and derivatives. High Yield (HY) is a mutual fund that has a large portfolio of junk bonds. HY wants to hedge against the risk of a downturn in the junk bond market.
Speech
The first line of defense and financial crime: keynote Address at the 1LoD Summit, New York City
Keynote Address at the 1LoD Summit, New York City.
Journal Article
Banking trends: how Dodd–Frank affects small bank costs
Do stricter regulations enacted since the financial crisis pose a significant burden?