Michael Barr is Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. As a member of the Board of Governors Barr has a permanent vote on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
His comments are wide-ranging but mainly not related to his outlook on the economy nor monetary policy. A few snippets though:
- Another priority is monitoring the risk of crypto-asset-related activities
- Recent events in crypto markets have highlighted the risks to investors and consumers when new asset classes not accompanied by strong guardrails
- As we have recently seen, many innovations also carry risks, including liquidity runs, the rapid collapse of asset values, misuse of customer funds, fraud, theft, manipulation, and money laundering
- Us economic outlook has weakened amid tighter financial conditions, uncertainty
- Crypto-asset-related activity, requires effective oversight that includes safeguards to ensure that crypto companies are subject to similar regulatory safeguards as other financial services providers
- Recent events remind us of the potential for systemic risk if interlinkages develop between the crypto system that exists today and the traditional financial system
- Fed is heightening focus on liquidity, credit, interest-rate risks
- Inflation far too high
Michael Barr nominate to Federal Reserve Board of Governors