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☆ Crypto trading could take a breather after ‘Shanghai’ rally, as investors refocus on banks and economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

While ether climbed throughout the week, bitcoin – the outperformer this year – was trading more choppily. Or will it be an event where people are losing money broadly and economic concerns spill over into the crypto space." "I think it could go either way, but so far what we see in the crypto space is encouraging," he added. "Investors could continue to be picky and look for perceived quality, even in the crypto space," she said. "That's helped bitcoin this year since it's seen as a risk asset outside of crypto, but a store of value within crypto.

[1/2] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before a House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2023. Many in the industry have said existing securities regulations are inappropriate and the sector needs fresh rules. Some DeFi platforms may fall under the proposed definition, but others may already be considered exchanges by the existing one, SEC officials said this week. "Make no mistake: many crypto trading platforms already come under the current definition of an exchange," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in prepared remarks published on Friday. Most crypto trading platforms meet that definition, regardless of whether they call themselves decentralized, Gensler said.

☆ US SEC sees DeFi platforms as exchanges, seeks more public feedback
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before a House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2023. The SEC voted 3-2 to take additional comments from the public after crypto firms criticized the plan as vague and aimed at roping in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. Some DeFi platforms may fall under the proposed definition, but others may already be considered exchanges by the existing one, SEC officials said this week. "Make no mistake: many crypto trading platforms already come under the current definition of an exchange," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in prepared remarks published on Friday. Most crypto trading platforms meet that definition, regardless of whether they call themselves decentralized, Gensler said.

☆ US senators defend push to give Biden new tools to ban TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The White House and 26 senators support the Restrict Act that would apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Critics say the bill is overbroad and hurts civil liberties of Americans including the more than 150 million U.S. TikTok users. The senators denied targeting individual users or people using a virtual private network to access TikTok. Last week, Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked a bid to fast-track a separate bill to ban TikTok introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, who said the Restrict Act "doesn’t ban TikTok. Then President Donald Trump's attempts in 2020 to ban TikTok were blocked by U.S. courts.

☆ Premarket stocks: The FDIC could ask big banks to clean up $23 billion mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

While regional and mid-sized banks are behind the recent turmoil, it appears that large banks may be footing the bill. Ultimately, that means higher fees for bank customers and lower rates on their savings accounts. The law also gives the FDIC the authority to decide which banks shoulder the brunt of that assessment fee. Passing it on: Regardless of who’s charged, the fees will eventually get passed on to bank customers in the end, said Isaac. In 2021, Wall Street was estimated to be responsible for 16% of all economic activity in the city.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The secretive world of Federal Reserve bank supervision has been laid bare by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and critics say it needs an overhaul to make it more nimble, transparent and decisive. Typically, bank supervisors do most of their work behind closed doors. Bank supervision is typically conducted behind closed-doors because of concerns that publicizing bank missteps could spur bank runs and undermine confidence in the overall system. SVB's rapid growth also was a factor for Fed supervisors. Barr said part of his review would look at whether Fed supervision was appropriate for the bank's "rapid growth and vulnerabilities."

☆ Premarket stocks: Banking chaos has been bittersweet for crypto and wine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But it also gave the fine wine and crypto industry a big boost as panicking investors rushed out of the financial sector and into alternative assets. Bittersweet banking: SVB lent over $4 billion to winery clients since 1994, with over 400 wine industry clients (including wineries, vineyards and vendors) working with the bank’s premium wine division, according to the bank’s website. Recent SEC filings, meanwhile, indicated SVB had about $1.2 billion in outstanding loans to high-end wine clients when the bank collapsed. Circle, the company behind popular stablecoin USDC, said it had about $3.3 billion of its $40 billion in reserves at SVB. The collapse of Signature Bank, a major crypto lender, also had serious implications for the industry.

☆ Republicans want to cut $1 trillion in spending — and instead of introducing 1 bill, they've introduced 500 to do just that
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

GOP lawmakers published over 500 bills on different areas in which they want to cut spending. It comes as Biden has been urging Republicans to put forth a concrete budget. GOP budget chair Jodey Arrington said the budget could take months, and the primary focus should be raising the debt ceiling. Republican lawmakers just made their latest move in the ongoing drama to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. Now, Republicans have some ideas — or rather, over 500 proposed bills for limiting funding to a slew of federal government programs and agencies.

REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueMarch 29 (Reuters) - The scope of blame for Silicon Valley Bank's failure stretches across bank executives, Federal Reserve supervisors and other regulators, the banking system's top cop on Wednesday told U.S. lawmakers demanding answers for the lender's swift collapse. "I think that any time you have a bank failure like this, bank management clearly failed, supervisors failed and our regulatory system failed," Michael Barr, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, told Congress. 'SOME REAL FLAWS'Barr told the House Financial Services Committee that he first became aware of stress at Silicon Valley Bank on the afternoon of March 9, but that the bank reported to supervisors that morning that deposits were stable. The Fed was in discussions with Silicon Valley Bank the day before its collapse to move pledgable collateral to the discount window, a key facility long associated with providing emergency loans to banks, Barr said on Wednesday. "(Fed) staff were working with Silicon Valley Bank basically all afternoon and evening and through the morning the next day to pledge as much collateral as humanly possible to the discount (window) on Friday," Barr said.

March 29 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve was in discussions with Silicon Valley Bank the day before its collapse to move pledgable collateral to the discount window, a key facility long associated with providing emergency loans to banks, the Fed's head of banking supervision told a Congressional committee on Wednesday. Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Michael Barr said he first became aware of stress at Silicon Valley Bank on the afternoon of March 9, but that the bank reported to supervisors that morning that deposits were stable. "(Fed) staff were working with Silicon Valley Bank basically all afternoon and evening and through the morning the next day to pledge as much collateral as humanly possible to the discount (window) on Friday," Barr said to the House Financial Services Committee. Barr told the Senate Banking Committee he first became aware of the interest rate risk issues at SVB in mid-February, while Fed supervisors had been raising issues with the bank directly in months prior to that. Some Democrats have also argued a 2018 bank deregulation law is to blame.

☆ The bank crisis threatens to spark a credit crunch as Main Street banks pull back
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A possible consequence of the banking crisis is that households and businesses may soon find it harder to get a loan from their bank. Around $1 trillion in deposits have been pulled from smaller and mid-sized banks since the Fed began hiking rates last year, with half that fleeing banks since SVB collapsed. "The uncertainty generated by deposit movements could cause banks to become more cautious on lending," JPMorgan strategists wrote in a note. "This risk is heightened by the fact that mid- and small-size banks play a disproportionately large role in US bank lending." This likely could impact the trajectory of the economy, as regional and community banks are a massive source of credit to Main Street borrowers.

House lawmakers tore into top U.S. bank regulators Wednesday, questioning their competency and saying examiners were asleep at the wheel, at a second day of congressional hearings this week about how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed practically overnight on March 10 and March 12. "We need competent financial supervisors, but Congress can't legislate competence," House Financial Services chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told top officials at the Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC at the beginning the hearing. "The light touch cautions from the Fed to SVB management are clearly not what Congress intended for bank supervision," said Waters. Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, Mich., demanded raw, confidential supervisory information about the banks, available to regulators ahead of the collapses. Members of the Republican majority House challenged many of the decisions made by regulators in the hours and days after SVB collapsed and Signature Bank followed 48 hours later.

"I think that any time you have a bank failure like this, bank management clearly failed, supervisors failed and our regulatory system failed," Michael Barr, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision, told Congress. REPORTS DUE MAY 1Both the Fed and FDIC are is expected to produce reports on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank by May 1. Barr told the House Financial Services Committee that he first became aware of stress at Silicon Valley Bank on the afternoon of March 9, but that the bank reported to supervisors that morning that deposits were stable. Gruenberg of the FDIC told lawmakers he also became aware of SVB's stress that Thursday evening. "(Fed) staff were working with Silicon Valley Bank basically all afternoon and evening and through the morning the next day to pledge as much collateral as humanly possible to the discount (window) on Friday," Barr said.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Lawmakers are expected to put top U.S. bank regulators on the defensive over the unexpected failures of regional lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank when they testify before Congress on Tuesday. Regulators have vowed to review their rules and procedures after the twin failures while insisting the overall system remains sound. Tuesday's hearing at the Senate Banking Committee will give lawmakers the chance to press watchdogs on what went wrong on their watch, and push preferred policy prescriptions. They just didn't," said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, at a banking industry conference last week. Some Democrats, including major bank critic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have also argued a 2018 bank deregulation law is to blame.

☆ What to expect from the Senate hearings on recent bank failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Silicon Valley Bank’s liquidity crisis and subsequent downfall sent waves of panic through the financial system in early March, setting off a chain reaction of chaos with which regional banks are still grappling. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will continue with their own line of questioning. Sen. Brown has called for the executives of Silicon Valley Bank to be held accountable for the bank’s failure. “Our banking system is sound and resilient, with strong capital and liquidity,” Barr said. The failures of SVB and Signature Bank, he wrote, “demonstrate the implications that banks with assets over $100 billion can have for financial stability.

☆ Andrew Bailey says Bank of England on high alert as investors 'test' banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

On Monday, European bank shares rose, boosted by news that First Citizens Bank in the United States would buy most of the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed earlier this month. “I think there are moves in markets to, if you like, test out firms,” Bailey told a UK parliamentary committee Tuesday. José Manuel Campa, the head of the European Banking Authority, told Germany’s Handelsblatt Monday that European lenders remained vulnerable. The Swiss heavyweight was rescued by UBS, while SVB UK was bought by HSBC (HBCYF) for £1 after its US parent was shut by regulators. Despite being well-capitalized, SVB UK would not have survived the demise of its US parent, according to Bailey.

☆ Stock futures rise slightly after Nasdaq falls for a second day: Live updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. stock futures ticked higher Tuesday night after the major averages declined on the back of higher bond yields. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 41 points, or 0.13%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.14% and 0.09%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.45% during the regular session on Tuesday, falling for a second straight day as rising yields weighed on tech stocks. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast a decline of 3% in February, down from a rise of 8.1% the previous month.

☆ TikTok wants its advertisers to know the 'myths vs. facts' after its CEO's day in Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Now, it seems, TikTok wants to clear up some facts that lawmakers may have gotten wrong. TikTok wants to clear up "Myth vs Fact." After the TikTok CEO's 5-hour hearing at Congress last Thursday, the company wants to reassure advertisers that it'll be fine. The document states: "TikTok does not permit any government to influence or change its recommendation model." Advertisers make up a large chunk of TikTok's user base, which the company says is now at 150 million monthly active users in the US.

☆ Fed's Barr calls Silicon Valley Bank failure a 'textbook case of mismanagement'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Federal Reserve's top banking regulator said Monday that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank was due largely to mismanagement, though he noted that regulation and oversight also need to step up. "To begin, SVB's failure is a textbook case of mismanagement," he said. Along with the examination into what happened specifically with the bank, Barr also noted that the probe will examine whether the Fed's testing of risk was adequate. He pointed out that the supervisors identified problems with SVB's liquidity risk management as far back as late-2021. Part of the review also will look at whether more stringent standards would have pushed SVB to have a better handle on its liquidity risk.

☆ First came bank failures. Now comes the House hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Federal regulators are being called to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. What lawmakers are saying: Elected officials want a review of what happened at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month, as well as stricter regulations to prevent it from happening again. Regulators on March 12, just days after SVB collapsed, announced a guarantee of all deposits at the bank and Signature Bank. What to expect: It’s unclear what will come of the hearings on SVB and Signature Bank. Wednesday: The House Financial Services Committee’s hearing on the banking crisis continues for a second day.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - The banking crisis set off by the swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) has exposed a sharp disconnect between Washington and Wall Street. Some critics are asking whether the Biden administration could have contained the crisis with aggressive actions at the start. FINDING A BUYER FOR SVBThe failure of the nation's 16th largest bank caught regulators off guard. The banking industry itself is not united on how to reassure depositors. The banking industry is searching for sweeping relief to calm markets, while Washington is discussing how to prevent the next crisis.

☆ U.S. regulators say banking system 'sound and resilient'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - The multi-regulator U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council agreed on Friday that the U.S. banking system remains "sound and resilient" despite stress on some institutions, the U.S. Treasury said in its latest statement to calm jittery markets and bank depositors. "The Council discussed current conditions in the banking sector and noted that while some institutions have come under stress, the U.S. banking system remains sound and resilient," the Treasury said in a statement. They added that the basis of the Treasury, Fed and FDIC determinations in the SVB and Signature cases "are of particular importance." Those actions to invoke "systemic risk exceptions" were taken by Yellen, President Joe Biden, the FDIC, and the Fed, which supervised Silicon Valley and Signature. Reporting by David Lawder; additional reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Diane Craft and Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Key lawmakers say upcoming hearings on bank failures aim to boost U.S. confidence in banking sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers overseeing the recent turmoil in the banking sector said Wednesday that they aim to increase Americans' confidence in the banking industry after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed over the last two weeks. Regulators and lawmakers are also trying to contain further damage to the economy and reinforce confidence in the banking system. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, also said writing new laws should take a back seat at the hearings to investigating what happened. We can't legislate that either in the financial sector or among financial institutions management, nor with the regulators." Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and chairman of Senate Banking Committee, compared the SVB collapse to the devastating train crash in East Palestine, Ohio.

☆ Bank fears will likely lead to even more market volatility in the week ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Market turbulence could reign supreme once again in the week ahead, as investors worry about the potential for more trouble rippling through the banking system. The broader market was initially under pressure Friday as investors became jittery about Deutsche Bank . "The market is saying: 'You, the Fed, do not appreciate the slowdown that is going to hit us,'" Chandler said. "The market is going to do a lot better and it held onto its gains despite all the things that rocked the market. He added that market concern about banks has risen, and there is concern credit tightening will hurt the economy.

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated on Thursday that she was prepared to take further action to ensure that Americans' bank deposits stay safe amid turmoil in the banking system. Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) was taken over by federal regulators on March 10, followed days later by Signature Bank (SBNY.O). Biden said last week the banking crisis has calmed down, and promised Americans that their deposits are safe. Yellen also said supply chain pressures and shipping costs were coming down and were eventually likely to bring down inflation. Separately on the issue of the debt ceiling, the Treasury secretary said that a U.S. debt default would undermine the dollar's reserve currency status and that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would lead to a recession or worse.

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