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Overview: Mon, May 20

Yellen, Janet

Thursday, 27 February 2014

In addition to that we're looking particularly through the stress tests at financial institutions in a low interest rate environment. We have to worry about whether or not they're appropriately dealing with interest rate risk. We have been looking at that and, in fact, our current stress test
I would say at this stage broadly I don't see concerns. But there are pockets, a few things that we've identified that do concern us. For example, underwriting standards and leveraged lending clearly appear to be deteriorating. We have addressed that with supervisory guidance and special exams, and we'll continue to be very vigilant in that area. That's worrisome to us.
There are a few areas within asset price evaluations, broadly speaking. I wouldn't worry, but there are a few areas where I would be concerned. Many people have emphasized farm land as a concern, farm land prices.
So there are a few areas. We have regulatory and supervisory tools. To me, they should be the first line of defense. But I don't rule out monetary policy.