FRB Governor Powell Examines Liquidity Risks In Central Clearing

At the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Symposium on Central Clearing, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("FRB") Governor Jerome H. Powell detailed the risks faced by central counterparties ("CCPs") and their members.

Because they advocated for central clearing, Mr. Powell noted, global authorities (i) have a responsibility to make sure that CCPs do not become a point of failure in the system and (ii) must ensure that bank capital rules do not discourage central clearing.

Regarding bank capital, Mr. Powell argued that the supplementary leverage ratio for U.S. global systemically important banks fails to account for the relatively low risk of central clearing, as compared to riskier activities, and could discourage central clearing. He explained that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is considering a "risk-sensitive" approach to evaluating counterparty credit risk for certain centrally cleared derivatives, which could help to encourage central