The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) announced on Wednesday, November 12th that the Deputies Committee had held a series of meetings with various parties regarding the Council’s nonbank financial company designations process. The meetings come after the Council’s instructions to staff at its October 6 public meeting, and are part of the FSOC’s efforts to get input from all relevant stakeholders regarding potential changes to the designations process.
The FSOC is the regulatory authority that determines if a financial institution is a “systemic risk“, and if so, what kind of additional regulatory burden the institution must bear to mitigate that risk.
FSOC meetings with stakeholders
Of note, the staff of FSOC members and member agencies had meetings on Wednesday with a number of concerned organizations, including representatives of:
American Council of Life Insurers
Americans for Financial Reform
American Insurance Association
Association of Institutional INVESTORS
Better Markets
Bipartisan Policy Center
Financial Services Roundtable
Investment Company Institute
Managed Funds Association
Property Casualty Insurers Association of America
SIFMA Asset Management Group
Systemic Risk Council
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The discussions were productive and provided FSOC staff an opportunity to understand a range of views from a variety of different perspectives. Council staff has also consulted with other stakeholders during this information-gathering phase, including numerous discussions with Congressional staff and management of previously designated firms.
Wednesday FSOC meetings covered three main topics
The FSOC put out a press release on Wednesday detailing that conversations with interested parties to date have focused on proposals in three broad categories: greater engagement with companies under review during Stages 2 and 3 of the designation review process; details on the process involved in the annual reevaluations of previously designated companies; and the balance between keeping the public informed of the work of the FSOC and protecting the important, confidential information of the companies under review.
