Yellen Excerpt:Broad Based Commitment To Core Reforms In Place

     WASHINGTON (MNI)  - The following is a response of Federal Reserve Chairman

Janet Yellen to a question from a reporter at her press conference following

Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Question:

     There have been reservations among some Democratic senators recently during

governor Powell's confirmation hearing and during the markup of the reg relief

bill about the approach towards regulation that the new leadership appears to be

adopting. 

     Do you have any similar reservations about the new leadership's ability to

deregulate in a even handed way, that keeps a eye towards the stability of the

financial system and the advances that have come from post crisis regulation? 

Yellen:

     So I would say that all of my colleagues on the board have expressed a

strong commitment to keep in place the core reforms that have produced a

stronger financial system. I'm considering there stronger capital, particularly

for the most systemic institutions, higher quality capital, stronger liquidity

requirements, rigorous stress testing program, and resolution planning that will

make it more possible to resolve a firm that encounters significant distress. 

     I have heard broad-based commitment to those things, and I think they are

the core of the reforms we have put in place. 

     I think all of us agree that it is appropriate to tailor our regulatory

requirements in all of those areas and others to the systemic footprint of

firms. We have done a lot to do that, and I think there's more that could be

done, and in some areas it would require legislation in order to do that. 

     But I believe all of my colleagues and I are in agreement on that. And we

are also focused on community banks, and want to find ways to relieve burden. So

in those important ways, I do think that all of my colleagues are in the same

place with respect to their priorities. 

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202-371-2121; email: holly.stokes@marketnews.com

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