SIFIs

The Financial Stability Oversight Council has struggled to find its footing since its creation in Dodd-Frank. The Treasury secretary has signaled a more aggressive role for the panel, including reviving its authority to target nonbank behemoths.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council’s plan to study the market explains very little about which activities or firms, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will be designated as systemically important. Here's some clearer guidance.

The council created by the Dodd-Frank Act to identify systemic risks launched a review of the market as part of an activities-based approach that shifts focus away from targeting individual firms.

A report from the Financial Stability Oversight Council cited a bigger share of originations and servicing by nonbanks as a potential vulnerability in the financial system.

A report from the Financial Stability Oversight Council cited a bigger share of originations and servicing by nonbanks as a potential vulnerability in the financial system.

The regulators have yet to complete rules on regional bank supervision, community bank capital and other provisions meant to ease institutions' burden.

There is bipartisan agreement in the Senate that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "too big to fail," but some lawmakers are skeptical that a SIFI designation is appropriate.

There's been chatter about whether the government-sponsored enterprises should be considered systemically important. But supporters must consider that such a designation would put the Fed in charge of their supervision, a step that would do more harm than good.

The FHFA director’s recent comments about whether the government-sponsored enterprises should be designated as SIFIs tees up a potentially significant element of the mortgage finance debate.

The central bank, which received broad authority after the crisis to supervise big banks, is expected to get more attention from lawmakers over its discretion to ease banks’ burden.