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Report From FINRA Board Of Governors Meeting – May 2021: Board Approves 2020 Annual Financial Report; Adopts Advisory Committee Term Limits In Support Of Greater Diversity And Inclusion

Date 26/05/2021

FINRA’s Board of Governors met on May 18-19, 2021. During the meeting, the Board approved FINRA’s 2020 Annual Financial Report, which—for the first time—will include a section on human capital describing the diversity of the self-regulatory organization’s workforce and Board of Governors. The report will be published this summer.

The Economic Outlook And Monetary Policy, Federal Reserve Vice Chair For Supervision Randal K. Quarles At The Hutchins Center On Fiscal And Monetary Policy, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. (Via Webcast)

Date 26/05/2021

Thank you, David, and thank you to Brookings and the Hutchins Center for the opportunity to lead things off and be part of this very distinguished panel. Today, I will explain why I expect the U.S. economy to continue growing strongly over the remainder of this year and what the implications of that outlook are for monetary policy.

ISDA Response – ROC Consultation On Revised CDE Technical Guidance

Date 26/05/2021

ISDA’s response to the Critical Data Elements (CDE) Technical Guidance changes proposed by the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) as International Governance Body (IGB). The response raises inconsistencies in Valuation Amount requirements and requests clarification of certain aspects of Counterparty 2.

Testimony Before The Subcommittee On Financial Services And General Government, U.S. House Appropriations Committee, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Washington D.C., May 26, 2021

Date 26/05/2021

Good afternoon, Chairman Quigley, Ranking Member Womack, and members of the Subcommittee. I’m honored to appear before you today for the first time as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thank you for inviting me to testify on the agency today. Before I begin, I’d like to note that my views are my own, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the staff.

ISDA derivatiViews: Lessons Learned From Crisis

Date 26/05/2021

During the course of ISDA’s virtual Annual General Meeting earlier this month, we were fortunate to be joined by senior regulators and policy-makers from around the world to reflect on, among other things, the lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic. I agree with their observations that the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated the resilience of the financial system and financial institutions, while also recognizing there are areas that could be further improved to ensure markets remain resilient in the future.

U.S. Department of the Treasury: More than 1.8 million additional Economic Impact Payments disbursed under the American Rescue Plan; total payments reach nearly 167 million

Date 26/05/2021

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced they have disbursed more than 1.8 million additional Economic Impact Payments under the American Rescue Plan.

Moscow Exchange: Risk Parameters On Securities Market

Date 26/05/2021

CCP NCC sets the following risk parameters on Securities market starting from May 27, 2021:

Rising Expectation Of ‘Cashless’ Societies Worldwide: A Second Annual Report By The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Shows Growing Acceptance Of Digital Currencies, Accelerated By Covid-19

Date 26/05/2021

• Consumers are increasingly adopting cashless payment methods while governments are stepping up planning or piloting of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and companies are experimenting with accepting open-source digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, for treasury or portfolio allocation.
• A cashless trend was already strong, according to the previous year's research but in 2021, covid-19 prompted more movement away from physical cash. In 2020, only about 72% of respondents said that their country was likely to become a cashless society; that grew to over 81% this year. Meanwhile, the percent of respondents believing their country would never become cashless, saw a stark drop from 28% to 19%.
• While transaction settlement is a main function of any currency, digital or otherwise, the institutional investor and corporate treasurer respondents in the EIU research appear to be using digital currencies more as a store of value with a deflationary hedge than purely as a settlement option.
• About 76% of corporate treasury and institutional investor executives say covid-19 accelerated demand for, and adoption of, digital currencies.
• The concept of a digital currency playing a role as a "digital gold" asset in corporate treasuries or institutional investor portfolios is gaining acceptance among executives.

BIS: Income Inequality, Financial Intermediation, And Small Firms

Date 26/05/2021

Summary

Focus

This paper studies how income inequality affects job creation and finds that it reduces the number of jobs created by smaller firms.

Contribution

While existing research looks at the effects of inequality on households, this paper is among the first to show that income inequality also affects businesses. This evidence is based on four decades of data on top income shares across US states, combined with detailed information on job creation by firms of different sizes.

ESMA Consults On Commodity Derivatives Technical Standards As Part Of MiFID II Recovery Package

Date 26/05/2021

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today launched a consultation, as part of the post-Covid MiFID II Recovery Package, seeking input from market participants on its draft Technical Standards for commodity derivatives.