In a speech on March 23, Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Lael Brainard announced the formation of the Financial Stability Climate Committee. The move reaffirms the government's commitment to assessing the risks that climate change poses to the financial system, which was echoed by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell during a Congressional hearing this week.

On Thursday, March 17, at a hearing titled “By the Numbers: How Diversity Data Can Measure Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, and Full Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters requested diversity data and policies from America’s largest investment firms, data they believe “is indeed material to investors, and information that Congress and the public should have access to.”

On March 15, Acting Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Allison Herren Lee, gave a speech at the Center for American Progress, in which she set forth a regulatory agenda that centers on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) topics.

Yesterday, March 11, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held an Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting during which a draft recommendation was released regarding nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) and the annual reports released by the SEC’s Office of Credit Ratings (OCR).

On March 2, the Senate Banking Committee held a nomination hearing for Gary Gensler, President Biden’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler told the panel he supports more climate risk disclosure from companies. He stated, “In 2021, there’s tens of trillions of dollars of invested assets that are looking for more information about climate risk…and I think then the SEC has a role to play to bring some consistency and comparability to those guidelines.”

SFA’s response to the Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee (FIMSAC) recommendation regarding ways to mitigate conflicts on interest in credit ratings focused on 1) enhanced issuer disclosure, 2) increased NRSRO disclosure, 3) bondholder ratification of issuer-selected NRSROs, and 4) our members’ general comments around potential conflicts of interest.

Ginnie Mae recently announced that it would create a liquidity facility of last resort, and on Monday provided further guidance to industry participants on how the Pass Through Assistance Program for COVID-19 (PTAP/C19) will operate. Ginnie Mae ‘s PTAP/C19 is the first—and to date, only—Federal liquidity facility for mortgage servicers.

As the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Ackerman reports, about two million homeowners are skipping their monthly mortgage payments.

The New York Fed opened the registration process for the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) and published expanded FAQs pertaining to the facility’s operations.

In the week ending March 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 6,648,000, an increase of 3,341,000 from the previous week's revised level.