By Davit Kirakosyan
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell U.S. lawmakers on Thursday with new language regarding regulators' preparedness to protect deposits if needed, according to Bloomberg.
In her testimony released by the Treasury Department, Yellen will reiterate her Wednesday remarks to the Senate that the government’s recent actions were “taken to ensure that Americans’ deposits are safe”, and follow that with a new line “Certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted.”
The added comment comes amid close scrutiny of the Biden administration’s position on bank deposits. Bank stocks experienced a decline yesterday after Yellen's statement to a Senate subcommittee that the Treasury officials had neither considered nor examined the possibility of expanding federal insurance temporarily to all U.S. bank deposits without congressional approval.
Yellen clarified that such an action would require legislation, but regulators were prepared to repeat — on a case-by-case basis — depositor rescues if the failure of an individual bank posed a risk of sparking a broader contagion of bank runs.