The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing entitled "How Prospective and Current Homeowners Will Be Harmed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ('CFPB') Qualified Mortgage ('QM') Rule." The Delta Strategy Group's summary of the hearing (linked below) describes the views of the various participants in the hearing on how the QM Rule would impact mortgage markets and the ability of lenders to make mortgage loans. Click here for a summary of the hearing by Delta Strategy Group.

Senior financial supervisors from ten countries, collectively making up the Senior Supervisors Group ("SSG"), issued a report assessing the progress on measuring and reporting counterparty risk from large and complex financial firms. The report, Progress Report of Counterparty Data, collected daily global counterparty credit data for reporting firms' largest twenty exposures to each of the three distinct types of counterparties, including banks, non-bank financial institutions and non-bank corporate counterparties. The report found that firms have made improvements in assessing counterparty

The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing to examine the impact of the Volcker Rule on the U.S. economy and its capital markets. The hearing, among other things, investigated the effect of the Volcker Rule on the ability of financial institutions to own tranches of collateralized debt obligations backed by trust preferred securities, and how H.R. 3819, the Fairness for Community Job Creators Act, would modify the Volcker Rule's applicability to financial institutions that hold such ownership interests. The following witnesses testified: The Honorable Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr

SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher delivered a speech on the theories behind capital requirements for both banks and non-bank financial institutions. According to Commissioner Gallagher, policymakers often advance the mistaken view that there is a one-size-fits-all approach to capital. Rather, he explained, there are several models of capital requirements. Commissioner Gallagher stated that, in the banking sector, capital requirements are designed with the goal of enhancing safety and soundness, serving as a cushion against unexpected losses. By placing bank owners' equity at risk in the

The FDIC published items for the fall 2013 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda provides information as to the FDIC's current and projected rulemakings, existing regulations under review, and completed rulemakings. See: 79 FR 2758.