Fed looks to review secret ratings of largest banks, WSJ reports

The Federal Reserve’s incoming top banking cop is looking to review the confidential ratings for the health of large banks after criticizing the fact that two-thirds of them were deemed unsatisfactory last year, The Wall Street Journal’s Gina Heeb and Dylan Tokar report. Michelle Bowman, who was nominated by President Trump for vice chair for supervision at the Fed, has been expected to bring a lighter hand to bank regulation if she is approved by the Senate for the job. In a February speech she questioned the Fed’s recent supervisory ratings, saying there was an “odd mismatch” between the central bank’s views of the financial condition of the largest banks and the unsatisfactory ratings it gave many of them last year. Publicly traded companies in the space include Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Wells Fargo (WFC).