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- Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S. Goals
- The United States and the other 153 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been engaged in a set or "round" of negotiations called the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) since December 2001. The DDA's main objective is to refine and expand the rules by which WTO members conduct foreign trade with one another. This report is designed to assist the 112th Congress to understand and monitor progress of the negotiations and the major issues that the negotiators are addressing. The report provides a brief background section on the significance of services to the U.S. economy. It then explains briefly the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the structure and agenda of the services negotiations in the DDA round, including U.S. objectives in the negotiations. The report concludes with a status report on the negotiations and an examination of potential results.
- Bank Systemic Risk Regulation: The $50 Billion Threshold in the Dodd-Frank Act
- This report focuses on one pillar of the Dodd-Frank Act's (P.L. 111-203) response to addressing financial stability and ending too big to fail: a new enhanced prudential regulatory regime that applies to all banks with more than $50 billion in assets and to certain other financial institutions. Under this regime, the Federal Reserve is required to apply a number of safety and soundness requirements to large banks that are more stringent than those applied to smaller banks. These requirements are intended to mitigate systemic risk posed by large banks. This report also examines the question of which banks are systemically important.
- Costs of Government Interventions in Response to the Financial Crisis: A Retrospective
- This report summarizes government assistance programs and presents how much the programs ultimately cost (or benefit) the taxpayers based on straightforward cash accounting as reported by the various agencies.
- Introduction to Financial Services: International Supervision
- This report discusses the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and subsequent global economic turmoil that underscored the interconnectedness of the global financial system as well as its weaknesses. In the wake of the crisis, leaders from the United States and other countries have pursued a wide range of reforms to the international financial regulatory system.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2008 Appropriations
- This report is a guide to a new appropriations bill that Congress is considering for the first time this year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Financial Services and General Government. It summarizes the status of the bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity.
- Enron and Stock Analyst Objectivity
- Stock analysts provide research on companies and make recommendations on their stocks. When analysts are employed by brokerage firms and provide information for the firms’ retail and institutional clients, they are called sell-side analysts. Analysts who work specifically for institutional investors like mutual and pension funds are known as buy-side analysts. Because of their widespread presence in the national media, sell-side analysts’ recommendations have become part of the public domain and they can have significant influence on stock prices. This report examines the performance of the stock analysts in the Enron case.
- Financial Services and General Government Appropriations: FY2012 Budget Request Fact Sheet
- This report includes information about the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill and funding requests for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and 26 independent agencies. Among the independent agencies funded by the bill are the General Services Administration (GSA), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the United States Postal Service (USPS).
- Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S Goals
- This report is designed to assist Congress to understand and monitor progress of the negotiations and the major issues that the negotiators are addressing. The report provides a brief background section on the significance of services to the U.S. economy. It then explains briefly the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the structure and agenda of the services negotiations in the DDA round, including U.S. objectives in the negotiations. The report concludes with a status report on the negotiations and an examination of potential results.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2017 Appropriations: Overview
- This report discusses the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies.
- Regulation of Debit Interchange Fees
- This report provides a description of the debit payments process and network pricing, as well as an overview of the effects of the Durbin Amendement implemented by the Federal Reserve which includes a cap on the interchange fee for large issuers. In particular, the Durbin Amendment is discussed in light of comments by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.
- Treasury's Recent Report on Foreign Exchange Rate Policies
- This report responds to the new reporting requirements on exchange rates mandated in the Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-125), passed by Congress and signed by the President in February 2016.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) FY2017 Appropriations: Overview
- This report discusses the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of the Treasury (Title I), the Executive Office of the President (EOP, Title II), the judiciary (Title III), the District of Columbia (Title IV), and more than two dozen independent agencies (Title V). The bill typically funds mandatory retirement accounts in Title VI, which also contains additional general provisions applying to the funding provided agencies through the FSGG bill. Title VII contains general provisions applying government-wide. The FSGG bills have often also contained provisions relating to U.S. policy toward Cuba.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2014 Appropriations
- This report discusses the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill that provides funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies.
- Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) and Selected Policy Issues
- This report discusses the provisions of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) and some related policy issues.
- Banking Law: An Overview of Federal Preemption in the Dual Banking System
- This report provides an overview of the respective roles of the federal government and the states in regulating banking.
- Costs of Government Interventions in Response to the Financial Crisis: A Retrospective
- This report presents how much the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) ultimately cost (or benefited) the taxpayers based on straightforward cash accounting as reported by the various agencies.
- Financial Condition of Depository Banks
- This report discusses the congressional interest in the financial conditions of depository banks or the commercial banking industry that has increased in the wake of the financial crisis that unfolded in 2007-2009, which resulted in a large increase in the number of distressed institutions.
- Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S. Goals
- The report provides a brief background section on the significance of trade in services to the U.S. economy. It then explains briefly the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the structure and agenda of the services negotiations in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) round, including U.S. objectives in the negotiations. The report concludes with a status report on the negotiations and an examination of potential results.
- Who Regulates Whom? An Overview of U.S. Financial Supervision
- This report provides an overview of current U.S. financial regulation. It discusses which agencies are responsible for which institutions and markets, and what kinds of authority they have.
- Financial Condition of Depository Banks
- This report discusses the congressional interest in the financial conditions of depository banks or the commercial banking industry that has increased in the wake of the financial crisis that unfolded in 2007-2009, which resulted in a large increase in the number of distressed institutions.
- Payment Card Interchange Fees: An Economic Assessment
- This report focuses on the Visa and MasterCard card associations, which account for three-fourths of the payment card market in the United States in 2008. The report begins with a discussion of the nontraditional structure of the payment card market. The next section is an analysis of the problem of the optimum level of payment cards to achieve the highest social welfare benefit for cardholders and merchants. The third section discusses the provisions of the Credit Card Fair Free Act of 2008. The last section discusses some implications of the analysis.
- Financial Stability Oversight Council: A Framework to Mitigate Systemic Risk
- This report describes the mission, membership, and scope of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). It provides an analysis of several major policy issues related to the FSOC that may come before the 113th Congress.
- Federal financial regulatory agency reform: monetary policy operations
- This report presents provides a framework for examining proposals to reform the financial regulatory system.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2008 Appropriations
- This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Defense. For both defense authorization and appropriations, this report summarizes the status of the bills, their scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity.
- Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S. Goals
- This report is designed to assist Congress to understand and monitor progress of the negotiations and the major issues that the negotiators are addressing. The report provides a brief background section on the significance of services to the U.S. economy. It then explains briefly the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the structure and agenda of the services negotiations in the DDA round, including U.S. objectives in the negotiations. The report concludes with a status report on the negotiations and an examination of potential results.
- Ability to Repay, Risk-Retention Standards, and Mortgage Credit Access
- This report examines the developments associated with the implementation of mortgage lending reforms. The report begins with a summary of proposed ability to repay and risk-retention standards. Next, the report describes risky underwriting and financing practices that occurred prior to the mortgage crisis, followed by a discussion of how access to mortgage credit might be affected.
- Insurance Regulation After the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
- This report describes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (the GLB Act), which Congress passed in 1999 to enhance competition among financial services providers and to modernize their regulation. Since then, markets have not really integrated, and regulatory silos - with few exceptions - remain intact. Congress is now exploring federal standards for some aspects of state regulation of insurance.
- International Insurance Issues and H.R. 5143
- This report discusses the international response to the financial crisis, which included the creation of a Financial Stability Board (FSB) largely made up of various national financial regulators and the increased focus by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).
- Independence of Federal Financial Regulators: Structure, Funding, and Other Issues
- This report discusses institutional features that make federal financial regulators (and other independent agencies) relatively independent from the President and Congress.
- Financial Stability Oversight Council: A Framework to Mitigate Systemic Risk
- This report describes the mission, membership, and scope of the FSOC. It provides an analysis of several major policy issues related to the FSOC that may come before the 112th Congress. This report is intended to be used as a reference by congressional staff working on financial issues. The macroeconomic policy rationales for various financial crisis-related issues are summarized, and a glossary is provided to assist in understanding technical terms. This report is not intended to be read from cover to cover, but instead may be more useful as issues related to the FSOC arise.
- Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's Financial Problems: Frequently Asked Questions
- This report discusses the decision to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship and to a certain extent, the housing, mortgage, and even general financial markets.
- Financial Services and General Government (FSGG): FY2015 Appropriations
- This report discusses the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and more than two dozen independent agencies.
- Fair Trade in Financial Services: Legislation and the GATT
- As many countries enjoy growing financial economies, American banking and securities firms feel excluded from them. Asian countries are perceived as being especially discriminatory against U.S. financiers. Conversely, foreign financiers face few barriers against entry into the United States. Their share of U.S. finance has reached very significant amounts--especially that of Japan in U.S. commercial banking. Both pressures have induced consideration of legislation that could require reciprocity for foreign direct investment in financial companies in America, intended to open up corresponding nations' financial markets. The proposed legislation also reflects final collapse of multilateral negotiations in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade seeking to open up financial services in many nations to U.S. providers. It would apply sanctions against such countries similar to those opening up government securities markets abroad, but might result in some retaliation.
- Financial Services Trade with Japan
- The 1995 U.S.-Japan Financial Services Agreement further liberalizes aspects of Japan's financial markets, particularly in asset management, corporate securities, cross-border financial services, and in providing greater transparency for administrative procedures. Implementation will have to be monitored, however, and some issues still remain unresolved.