The financial world is too complex for “siloed regulators” to monitor all that goes on, and the recent financial crisis is proof that systemic oversight is needed, Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and chief executive officer William C. Dudley said yesterday.
“In my opinion, this crisis demonstrated that a systemic-risk oversight framework is needed to foster financial stability,” Dudley told the Partnership for New York City, according to a prepared text of the speech released by the Fed. “The financial system is simply too complex for siloed regulators to see the entire field of play, to prevent the movement of financial activity to areas where there are regulatory gaps, and, when there are difficulties, to communicate and coordinate all responses in a timely and effective manner.”
To oversee such a complex system, Dudley suggested evaluating the financial system in its entirety since “developments in one area can often have devastating consequences elsewhere.”
Continuous evaluation of large, systemically important financial entities, payment and settlement systems, and the capital markets are essential, he said, with connections understood and monitored on a real-time basis.
To be effective, systemic overseers must have a broad range of expertise, and Dudley suggested the Fed have an essential role, since it has expertise in all three areas: overseeing large financial institutions, operating a major payment system and supervising others, and operating in the capital markets managing its own portfolio and as an agent conducting Treasury auctions.
