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☆ FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg Won’t Oversee Misconduct Probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Rebecca Ballhaus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Martin Gruenberg, the FDIC’s chairman, won’t serve on a special committee that will oversee an independent review the agency’s workplace culture. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg NewsThe Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board is forming a special committee to oversee an independent review of the agency’s workplace culture, the agency said Tuesday, restricting the ability of the rest of the board—including the chairman—to influence the investigation. The special committee, created by a unanimous vote of the board, will be led by Republican Jonathan McKernan, who was confirmed to the board by the Senate late last year, and Democrat Michael Hsu, who has served as acting comptroller of the currency and an FDIC board member since 2021.

Persons: Martin Gruenberg, won’t, Tierney L, —, Republican Jonathan McKernan, Michael Hsu Organizations: Bloomberg, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Republican, Senate

☆ US FDIC launches review of alleged sexual harassment, misconduct
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Douglas Gillison | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg was also cited in the reports as having earned a reputation for bullying and leniency in cases of misconduct. The special committee will be co-chaired by two FDIC board members, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, a Democrat, and board member Jonathan McKernan, a Republican. Last week, McKernan and FDIC Vice Chair Travis Hill, also a Republican, had demanded that Gruenberg recuse himself from oversight of any review. The board resolution approving the review includes provisions "that restrict the ability of FDIC management and FDIC Board members not on the Special Committee to engage with or influence the review," Hill said, noting that his support of the decision had depended on that condition. In a statement, Sherrod Brown, a Democrat and chair of the Senate Banking Committee who last week called on FDIC inspector general's office to investigate, said the FDIC board had taken "appropriate steps" to ensure its own review would proceed independently.

Persons: Sheila Bair, Jason Reed, Martin Gruenberg, Gruenberg, Michael Hsu, Jonathan McKernan, McKernan, Travis Hill, Hill, Sherrod Brown, Douglas Gillison, Lisa Shumaker, Marguerita Choy, Leslie Adler Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, REUTERS, Companies United, U.S . Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Street Journal, Wall Street, Republican, FDIC, Democrat, recusal, Thomson Locations: Washington, Companies United States, America

☆ Pressure mounts on FDIC chief amid calls for recusal, congressional probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) logo is seen at the FDIC headquarters as Chairman Sheila Bair announces the bank and thrift industry earnings for the fourth quarter 2010, in Washington, February 23, 2011. In a statement, FDIC Vice Chairman Travis Hill and board member Jonathan McKernan said that "at a minimum" Gruenberg and FDIC General Counsel Harrel Pettway should recuse themselves from the internal review of workplace conduct at the agency. "It is clear Mr. Gruenberg never should have been reappointed or confirmed in the first place," McHenry said. McHenry also said Gruenberg had "initially misled" the committee during testimony on Wednesday, at first claiming he had not been the subject of an investigation to his workplace conduct before acknowledging that he had. Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Sheila Bair, Jason Reed, Martin Gruenberg, Gruenberg, Travis Hill, Jonathan McKernan, Harrel Pettway, Patrick McHenry, McHenry, Douglas Gillison, Chizu Nomiyama, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, REUTERS, Republican, U.S, U.S . Federal Desposit Insurance Corporation, Financial Services, Thomson Locations: Washington, U.S .

☆ Republican FDIC Board Members Call for Broader Oversight of Misconduct Probe at Agency
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Rebecca Ballhaus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg, at left, sat alongside Travis Hill and Jonathan McKernan, Republican members of the FDIC board, at a hearing in 2022. Photo: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Bloomberg NewsTwo Republican members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board on Wednesday called for the board—not just the chairman—to oversee an investigation into allegations of harassment and discrimination at the agency. “The conduct reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier this week has no place at this agency or anywhere in the workforce and should not be tolerated,” Vice Chairman Travis Hill and Director Jonathan McKernan said in a joint statement.

Persons: Martin Gruenberg, Travis Hill, Jonathan McKernan, Amanda Andrade, Rhoades, — Organizations: Republican, FDIC, Bloomberg News, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Wall Street

☆ UN-Mandated Investigation Into Ethiopia Atrocities Lapses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.N.-mandated investigation into continuing atrocities in Ethiopia faces closure after a U.N. website on Wednesday showed that no motion has been received to renew it. Both sides accused each other of atrocities, including massacres, rape and arbitrary detentions, but each denied responsibility for systemic abuses. The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, created by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2021 after a motion submitted by the European Union, said last month that war crimes and crimes against humanity were still being committed in Ethiopia. "Having no resolution is scandalous in the face of the report of the experts that was just published," said Lucy McKernan from Human Rights Watch, responsible for advocacy work at the Human Rights Council and other UN human rights mechanisms. Ethiopia, which denies committing widespread abuses, has strongly opposed the probe and tried to cut its work short.

Persons: Lucy McKernan, Emma Farge, Aaron Ross, William Maclean Organizations: International Commission of Human, Human Rights, European Union, Human Rights Watch Locations: GENEVA, Ethiopia, Tigray, Amhara

☆ How you could be impacted by higher bank capital requirements
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Their risk-level assessments have been the basis for informing how much capital they need to hold on top of baseline requirements. Silicon Valley Bank accumulated a lot of paper losses, or unrealized losses, from holding bonds while the Fed hiked interest rates. But it did not need to hold capital to protect depositors from those losses. Some also expressed concerns that banks would pass on their higher capital costs to consumers in the form of higher fees to maintain their profit levels. However, UBS, Citizens Bank and Capital One will have to hold more capital.

Persons: wouldn’t, ”, Banks, aren’t, Steven Kelly, won’t, SVB, Jonathan McKernan, Michelle Bowman, Kelly, ” Kelly, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Huntington Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Valley Bank, FDIC, ”, Manufacturers, JPMorgan, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, UBS, Citizens Bank, Capital, Nasdaq Locations: New York, Basel, Banc, California, Silicon

[1/3] One of Tiger Brands' most popular beverage products, Oros, is seen during production at a manufacturing facility in Germiston, South Africa November 17, 2022. This investment, sometimes at the cost of essential capital expenditure, will eventually be passed onto consumers, making food prices higher for longer, food companies, economists and lobby groups told Reuters. It comes at a time when South Africa is already struggling with acute unemployment, 14-year high interest rates and ballooning inflation and complicates efforts of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to ease interest rate hikes. Poultry producer Astral (ARLJ.J), diversified food producers AVI (AVIJ.J) and RCL Foods (RCLJ.J) have indicated in their recent earnings statements the mitigating measures would eventually translate into higher food prices. The listed food producers have collectively lost almost 15% in their market value since the beginning of the year.

Persons: James Oatway, Derek McKernan, Kobus, Pieter Taljaard, Thomas Funke, Charles Rossouw, Rosle, Cloete, Gertenbach, Tannur Anders, Anait, Promit Mukherjee, David Evans Organizations: Tiger Brands, REUTERS, Reuters, South African Reserve Bank, Reuters Graphics, Premier, RCL, Grain SA, Cane Growers ' Association, Food, Agricultural, Thomson Locations: Germiston, South Africa, JOHANNESBURG, Africa

SummarySummary Companies Artists' accused companies of misusing works to train AI systemsCompanies said artists failed to identify infringement(Reuters) - Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt fired back Tuesday at a group of artists who accused them of committing mass copyright infringement by using the artists' work in generative AI systems. The companies asked a San Francisco federal court to dismiss the artists' proposed class action lawsuit, arguing that the AI-created images are not similar to the artists' work and that the lawsuit did not note specific images that were allegedly misused. Representatives for Stability, DeviantArt and the artists did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Midjourney's motion said that the lawsuit also does not "identify a single work by any plaintiff" that it "supposedly used as training data." The case is Andersen v. Stability AI Ltd, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

More adults in the U.S. expect to be more stressed in 2023 than at this time last year, but they also say they're more willing to take steps to tackle that stress, a survey released Wednesday finds. And about 37% of adults (nearly 2 out of 5) rated their mental health as “fair or poor” this month, up from 31% a year ago. Young adults, low-income adults and parents were most likely to rank their mental health as fair or poor. At the same time, more adults say they plan to take steps to improve their mental health next year, such as journaling or going to therapy, the survey found. McKernan said other ways people can take care of their mental health include paying attention to signs of stress.

☆ Senate Confirms Martin Gruenberg to New Term Atop FDIC
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Andrew Ackerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Martin Gruenberg, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, first joined the FDIC board in 2005, during the George W. Bush administration. WASHINGTON—The Senate confirmed Martin Gruenberg for a second term as the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., capping a turbulent period for the agency and cementing Democratic leadership on the bank regulator’s board. The Senate move officially wraps up an episode from a year ago in which the board’s Democratic majority put pressure on its Republican chairwoman at the time, Jelena McWilliams , prompting her to resign more than a year before her term ended. The chamber on Monday also added two Republicans, Travis Hill and Jonathan McKernan, to the banking regulator’s board, in a deal that provided the five-member agency with a full complement of board members for the first time since 2015.

The first study ever to directly compare medication to meditation for anxiety finds the two methods work equally well at reducing symptoms. Just one side effect, increased anxiety, was reported in the mindfulness group, by about 15% of the participants. It's unclear why so many meditation participants appeared to drop off, she said. The time commitment to mindfulness throughout the study, however, was important for people to learn the proper techniques, Hoge said. The thinking behind mindfulness, Hoge said, is that it can make the thoughts that fuel anxiety less powerful.

A constant influx of bad news — pandemic, shootings, inflation, natural disasters, political turmoil — can feel, at best, soul-crushing. Now, a new study from Spain confirms the negative toll constantly being plugged into the news cycle can take. Others note that there's only so much negative news coverage a person can take before it affects their mental health. The study found that those who avoided "too much stressful news" had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. The research also tracked whether the participants got Covid during the study period.

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