Sarah Bloom Raskin News

WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City revoked the so-called master account of a payments firm that came to prominence earlier this year when Republican senators raised questions over how that account had been granted, according to a letter sent by Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

As he and his colleagues engage in a bruising inflation battle, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell found out Thursday that he will be serving another term.

Following the withdrawal of former Federal Reserve Board governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, United States President Joe Biden has announced his intention to nominate former Obama administration official and law professor Michael Barr as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision.

President Joe Biden will nominate Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to be the Federal Reserve's top regulator in charge of big banks.

Last week got off to an antsy start as the clause that many interpreted as a direct route to ban proof-of-work-(PoW)-based cryptocurrencies made a sudden comeback to the draft of the European Union’s key directive on digital assets. Many in the crypto policy space got immediate flashbacks to other instances of harmful last-minute additions to must-pass legislation days and hours before the vote. It all ended well, though, as the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs voted against the draft that contained the hostile language. Over in the United States, monetary policy kept growing more political, as evidenced by Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden’s pick for the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision, being forced to withdraw her nomination due to a Senate gridlock. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took time off urgent matters of national defense to sign a bill granting digital assets legal status into law. Other big narratives of the week included crypto platforms’ expansion into the Gulf region, a slew of crypto-related statements and actions by members of the U.S. Congress and some favorable policy developments in Australia.

Lael Brainard, a member of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, encouraged the United States to be a leader in research and policy regarding central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, due to potential international developments.

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans refused to attend a crucial committee vote on President Biden’s nominees to the Federal Reserve over a disagreement with Democrats on one of the candidates, delaying the confirmation of all five picks, including Chairman Jerome Powell.

The White House has reportedly begun interviews for possible candidates to fill the empty seats on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2022.