US a long way from 'macroprudential' safeguards

Boston

THE United States is a long way from putting in place rules that will protect the financial system and the economy from broad risks, due in part to regulatory structure and to the difficulties of predicting the next crisis, a top Federal Reserve official said on Saturday.

New York Fed president William Dudley, an influential Wall Street supervisor, warned against hastily putting in place so-called macroprudential tools, which would go beyond regulating specific banks and firms and focus on the broader financial sector. "While the use of macroprudential tools holds promise, we are a long way from being able to successfully use such tools in the United States," he told a conference in Boston.