How the Trump administration is testing Fed independence on bank rules

By Pete Schroeder and Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) – While U.S. President Donald Trump has been brazen in his demands for the historically independent Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, his administration is also trying to quietly steer the central bank’s policy in another critical area: oversight of Wall Street banks. 

Aiming to ease bank rules introduced after the 2008 crisis that it says are stymieing economic growth, the administration is now seeking more influence over the Fed’s rule-writing and supervision function, according to interviews with multiple current and former Fed and Treasury officials, and a review of public statements.

Those efforts, some details of which are reported here for the first time, risk making the Fed’s rulemaking and supervision function more vulnerable to ideological pressures and Wall Street influence, and could erode the central bank’s ability to safeguard the financial system, said three former officials. 

The push could gain ground if former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh is confirmed to replace current Fed Chair Jerome Powell whose term ends in May.

Warsh has said Fed regulatory and supervision policy should not be independent and that the central bank should reduce its footprint in the economy, implying a greater role for private banks and related policy levers. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the past year, Fed officials have wrestled with whether to comply with a Trump order to submit new rules for White House review, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The Treasury Department is also increasingly trying to steer the Fed’s rulemaking agenda, at one point last year pressing the central bank to speed up a major supervision change narrowing the reasons for which examiners can ding banks, said three other sources. 

At stake are several major changes to the amount of capital banks must put aside to withstand losses, as well as how examiners monitor the safety of lenders on a daily basis. 

“Banking supervision is better if it’s done by an independent agency,” said Scott Alvarez, who spent nearly 36 years at the Fed, including more than a decade as general counsel. 

“When there’s a political element to it, then banks that are influential with the administration get their way. That’s dangerous for the financial system.” 

A Fed spokesperson declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 

WHITE HOUSE ORDER DILEMMA 

During her confirmation hearing last April, Fed governor and Trump’s regulatory chief Michelle Bowman left open the possibility of complying with a Trump 2025 executive order requiring the Fed and other independent regulators to submit their rules for White House Budget Office review. 

That order, breaking with decades of precedent that had protected Fed rulemaking from White House interference, alarmed some top officials, said two people with knowledge of the discussions. 

Unsure how to proceed, Fed officials sounded out their counterparts at other independent federal regulators, in the hopes the agencies would stand together in defying the order, they said. To date, the Fed has not submitted a rule.

However, the central bank has fallen in line with other administration priorities by scrapping its climate change risk initiatives and abandoning its policing of bank reputational risks, a supervisory lens which Trump claims has led lenders to discriminate against him and other conservatives. 

Powell has said the central bank aligns with executive orders when consistent with law, as under past administrations.

The Fed spokesperson referred Reuters to Bowman’s February congressional testimony in which she said Fed independence is “of utmost importance, but along with that independence comes the responsibility for accountability and transparency.”

FED INDEPENDENCE ASSAULT

Trump has waged a pressure campaign against top Fed officials, including Powell, with the goal of lowering interest rates, sparking political outcry and court challenges. 

The central bank’s bipartisan board in Washington, where Republicans currently hold a 4-3 majority, decides on regulatory issues. Because the board has long prized consensus, Democrats can still wield their influence to shape Republican-led policies. 

While scholars generally agree Congress sought to shield the Fed’s monetary policymaking from political whims, they are divided over whether that independence extends to its regulatory and supervisory functions. 

“Rulemaking activities that facilitate monetary policy should be treated no differently than other activities of the Board,” said Todd Baker, senior fellow at the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia University.

Others say the Fed has an insular and bureaucratic culture that has led to missteps, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. They also argue the administration has an important role to play in keeping financial regulators on the same page.

Bowman has privately cited Trump’s campaign to cull the federal workforce and rein in independent regulators as a mandate to pursue transformative change at the Fed, according to two people familiar with her thinking. 

“Bowman has strategically given up a little bit of autonomy, ceded some power to Treasury for the greater good of coordination,” said Jeremy Kress, a University of Michigan law professor and former Fed attorney who generally favors tougher rules. 

“A lot of people would agree that we need Fed reform both from the outside and inside.”

GROWING ROLE OF TREASURY

While the Treasury has historically coordinated agencies during crises and fed back on some regulations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will steer bank regulation and the department’s involvement with the Fed’s agenda has increased significantly, according to three former regulatory officials.

A Treasury spokesperson referred Reuters to remarks Bessent gave at a Fed conference in July, where he said Treasury would set policy direction and push the bank regulators along, ensuring they prioritize economic growth.

“The department will break through policy inertia, settle turf battles, drive consensus, and motivate action to ensure no single regulator holds up reform,” he said at the time.

That has created occasional tensions. Fed officials have privately questioned – and sometimes pushed back on – Treasury officials’ efforts, said two of the sources. 

When Treasury officials pressed the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to publish a proposal defining “unsafe and unsound” bank practices ahead of a Bessent speech last October, Fed officials refused. They wanted more time to assess the potential legal issues, according to two sources with direct knowledge. The Fed has yet to issue the proposal.

An FDIC spokesperson declined to comment. The OCC did not respond to a request for comment.

STAFFING CHANGES

Sweeping personnel changes led by Bowman, who ascended to the role after the administration’s unprecedented effort to oust her Democratic predecessor, are also reshaping the supervision and regulation division. Ongoing headcount cuts, detailed in an internal memo, have led to the exits of long-tenured staff who for years served as a bulwark against outside influence on the Fed’s rulemaking, according to three sources. 

Last year, Bowman also hired three banking industry executives including Randall Guynn, a longtime Davis Polk partner who has represented Wall Street banks. In March, he was named director of supervision and regulation, a role that had been filled with long-serving Fed career staff since at least 1977, Reuters reported. 

Typically,  governors have relied on career staff rather than outsiders, to maintain policy continuity. 

During the tenure of Bowman’s Republican predecessor Randal Quarles, bank lobbyists frequently complained that despite the change in political leadership, they continued to butt up against entrenched staffers. Many of those staff have recently left. 

“She’s making big changes and making them very quickly…It’s having a massive effect on the direction of the institution,” said Phillip Basil, a former Fed staffer now with Better Markets, a group that advocates for tougher rules. 

(Additional reporting by Manya Saini; Editing by Michelle Price, Suzanne Goldenberg and Anna Driver)