The Fed is about to see a lot of new faces. What it means for banks, the economy and markets
In what likely will be just a few months' time, the Federal Reserve will look a lot different: Three new governors, a new vice chairman, a new banking chief and likely a couple new regional presidents.
But while the parts of the institution's upper echelon may change quite a bit, the whole could look pretty much the same.
That's because Fed-watchers think ideologically there probably will be little change, even if Sarah Bloom Raskin, Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson are confirmed as new members on the Board of Governors. White House sources say President Joe Biden will nominate the trio in the coming days.
Of the three, Raskin is thought to be the biggest change agent. She is expected to take a heavier hand in her prospective role as the vice chair for bank supervision, a position until December that had been held by Randal Quarles, who took a lighter touch.
But while Raskin could ramp up the rhetoric on the financial system, there are questions over how much that actually will translate into policy-wise.
«She's a former regulator. She knows this stuff. This is not something she's going to screw up,» said Christopher Whalen, founder of Whalen Global Advisors and a a former Fed researcher. «The bankers will be surprised that the rhetoric is going to be maybe a little bit more extreme. But the substance? What are they going to do to these guys? It's not like they take a lot of risks.»
Indeed, the level of high-quality capital U.S. banks are holding compared to risk assets has progressed continually higher since the financial crisis of 2008, from 11.4% at the end of 2009 to 15.7% as of the third quarter in 2011, according to Fed data.
Still, the banking industry has remained a favorite target of congressional Democrats, led
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