Federal Reserve

The heavy workload is not limited to implementing the financial regulatory reform bill enacted last spring, as the agencies also work to craft reforms of the Community Reinvestment Act and adjust key capital measures for the biggest banks.

Better incentives to lend and invest in underserved communities are also worthy of consideration, Loretta Mester says, as regulators try to blend the best of the Community Reinvestment Act with new ideas in updating its rules.

For more than a year, the central bank has been under pressure to speed the development of a real-time payment system. But it faces tough questions about what its own role should be.

Financial regulators sought to walk a fine line Tuesday between reassuring Republican senators that they are quickly implementing regulatory relief and defending themselves against Democratic criticism that they are going too fast.

Fed Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles said in written tstimony that the central bank plans to move quickly to determine how to regulate banks between $100 billion and $250 billion of assets, and that it may provide also relief for banks over the $250 billion threshold.