Jerome Powell

“If investors avoid the Treasury market, we could be unable to pay off maturing securities, which would mean an immediate default. Market participants generally agree that even a brief default would create potentially catastrophic risks to the financial system, like the meltdown of 2008.”

“To ensure financial stability, we expect the provision of U.S. government securities settlement services to be robust in nearly all contingencies.”

“No single housing finance institution should be too big to fail.”

“The expectation of gradual policy normalization should reduce the likelihood of outsized movements in interest rates.”

“The financial crisis revealed important weaknesses in many areas of our financial system.”

“A digital currency issued by a central bank would be a global target for cyber attacks, cyber counterfeiting, and cyber theft.”

“We understand that America's prosperity is bound up with the prosperity of other nations, including emerging market nations.”

“One factor that favors easier adjustment in EMEs is that U.S. monetary policy normalization has been and should continue to be gradual, as long as the U.S. economy evolves roughly as expected.”

“More regulation is not the best answer to every problem.”

“The too-big-to-fail reform project is massive in scope. In my view, it holds real promise. But the project will take years to complete. Success is not assured.”

“Legislative reforms in the 1990s and the public/private structure led managements to expand the GSEs' balance sheets to enormous size, underpinned by wafer-thin slivers of capital, driving high shareholder returns and very high compensation for management.”

“The financial crisis and the Great Recession left firms with excess capacity, reducing incentives to invest. If businesses expect slower growth to continue, that will also hold down investment.”

“The United States has never prioritized or failed to pay any obligation when due during a debt limit impasse. Despite the institutional risks and the lack of clear legal authority, we assume that Treasury will attempt to prioritize payments in a last-ditch effort to avoid default.”

“The question of how to structure our nation's financial system arose in the early years of the republic.”

“An efficient payments system provides the infrastructure needed to transfer money in low-cost and convenient ways. Efficient systems are innovative in improving the quality of services in response to changing technology and changing demand.”

“There is no risk-free path for monetary policy.”

“By purchasing and holding large amounts of Treasury securities and MBS, we put additional downward pressure on term premiums and so on long-term rates.”

“With customers' permission, fintech firms have increasingly turned to data aggregators to 'screen scrape' information from financial accounts. In such cases, data aggregators collect and store online banking logins and passwords provided by the bank's customers and use them to log directly into the customer's banking account.”

“Regulatory changes have forced banks to closely examine their liquidity planning and to internalize the costs of liquidity provision. The costs of committed liquidity facilities will be passed on to clearing members. These costs are perhaps highest in clearing Treasury securities, where liquidity needs can be especially large.”

“Although I have never worked in a community bank, I have been a customer, and I know from personal experience the special skills that these institutions bring to their customers.”