Fed does consider impact of policy on emerging markets: Quarles

[BALI] The Federal Reserve is taking into account the effects its policies have on emerging markets, Vice-Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles said in Bali, Indonesia.

"We do consider the implication of our own policy to emerging markets," said Mr Quarles. "The right response is for us to be predictable, gradual about our policy as we can."

The Fed's tightening has caused strains across emerging markets - most notably in Argentina and Turkey, but also in Indonesia as capital flows reverse. Officials from the South-east Asian nation and other developing economies have used this week's annual IMF meetings in the resort island to call for awareness of their strains as the era of crisis-level monetary settings across the developed world comes to a close.

It's not just emerging market officials who are grumbling: President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed an "out of control" Fed for the worst stock market sell-off since February but said he wouldn't fire Jerome Powell, his own pick for chairman.

The remarks were a sharp escalation in his criticism of the Fed one month before congressional elections in which his Republican party is fighting to retain control of the House and Senate.

The Fed has raised rates six times since Mr Trump became president in January 2017, including a Sept 26 move that upped the target range for the benchmark policy rate to 2 per cent to 2.25 per cent, which is still low by historic standards. Officials have penciled in another move this year, likely in December, and three more hikes in 2019. That's according to its dot plot of interest rate forecasts updated last month.

Despite headwinds from Mr Trump's administration, which is critical of US regulators' participation in international efforts, Mr Quarles has been a prominent supporter of global agreements. He's said to be one of two favourites to be the next chief of the Basel-based Financial Stability Board - a panel of regulators seeking to curb risks to the financial system.

On the panel discussion in Bali on Saturday, he said the FSB needs to focus on systemic issues, with cyber resilience among those. He noted complexities in how to deal with cyber risks and how to bring a system back in the event of an attack.

Back home, Mr Quarles is seeking to revise some of the key safeguards the US instituted after the 2008 financial meltdown. Since his arrival at the Fed, the agency has proposed overhauling its capital rules and stress tests. And it's now working to ease up its supervision of all but the biggest Wall Street banks, overhauling how the Fed treats lenders that don't pose as much danger to the system if they collapse.

Another key effort during his watch has been re-writing the so-called Volcker rule that restricted banks from investing with their own capital.

BLOOMBERG