Supervising Large, Complex Financial Institutions: What Do Supervisors Do?
40 Pages Posted: 31 May 2015
There are 2 versions of this paper
Supervising Large, Complex Financial Institutions: What Do Supervisors Do?
Date Written: May 1, 2015
Abstract
The Federal Reserve is responsible for the prudential supervision of bank holding companies (BHCs) on a consolidated basis. Prudential supervision involves monitoring and oversight to assess whether these firms are engaged in unsafe or unsound practices, as well as ensuring that firms are taking corrective actions to address such practices. Prudential supervision is interlinked with, but distinct from, regulation, which involves the development and promulgation of the rules under which BHCs and other regulated financial intermediaries operate. This paper describes the Federal Reserve’s supervisory approach for large, complex financial companies and how prudential supervisory activities are structured, staffed, and implemented on a day‐to‐day basis at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as part of the broader supervisory program of the Federal Reserve System. The goal of the paper is to generate insight for those not involved in supervision into what supervisors do and how they do it. Understanding how prudential supervision works is a critical precursor to determining how to measure its impact and effectiveness.
Keywords: bank supervision, large and complex financial companies
JEL Classification: G21, G28
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation