Federal Independent Agencies
News releases, reports, statements and associated documents from federal independent agencies.
Featured Stories
Sampling Begins at Former Wolverine Tannery in Rockford, Michigan
CHICAGO, Illinois, June 18 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is overseeing a contamination study at Wolverine World Wide's former tannery in Rockford, Mich. Sampling will begin on Monday, June 18, and continue for approximately ten weeks. Sampling at the company's former House Street landfill in Plainfield Township is ongoing.
Under the direction of EPA and per its January 2018 administrative order, Wolverine will sample soil, sediment, and groundwater for hazardous substances including heavy metals, volatile organic
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CHICAGO, Illinois, June 18 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is overseeing a contamination study at Wolverine World Wide's former tannery in Rockford, Mich. Sampling will begin on Monday, June 18, and continue for approximately ten weeks. Sampling at the company's former House Street landfill in Plainfield Township is ongoing.
Under the direction of EPA and per its January 2018 administrative order, Wolverine will sample soil, sediment, and groundwater for hazardous substances including heavy metals, volatile organiccompounds (VOCs), and semi-VOCs. A soil gas survey will also be conducted.
EPA continues to work with the State of Michigan on a coordinated enforcement approach at the Wolverine sites in and around Rockford that are contaminated with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and hazardous substances. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality remains the lead agency addressing drinking water contamination from PFAS.
For more information: https://www.epa.gov/mi/wolverine-world-wide-tannery
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IMF General Legal Counsel Sean Hagan to Retire
WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The International Monetary Fund issued the following news release:
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) General Counsel, Sean Hagan, will retire at the end of October, Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced today. Mr. Hagan has worked at the Fund for 28 years, including almost 14 as General Counsel and head of the Fund's Legal Department. He has announced his intention to take up a position in academia.
"During Sean's tenure at the Fund, he made his mark on virtually every aspect of the Fund's work," Ms. Lagarde said. "Sean's significant policy achievements, undertaken
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WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The International Monetary Fund issued the following news release:
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) General Counsel, Sean Hagan, will retire at the end of October, Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced today. Mr. Hagan has worked at the Fund for 28 years, including almost 14 as General Counsel and head of the Fund's Legal Department. He has announced his intention to take up a position in academia.
"During Sean's tenure at the Fund, he made his mark on virtually every aspect of the Fund's work," Ms. Lagarde said. "Sean's significant policy achievements, undertakenin collaboration with colleagues, include modernizing the Fund's lending toolkit, integrating its surveillance processes, articulating the Fund's policies on sovereign debt, and devising multilateral debt relief for highly indebted low-income countries.
"Under Sean's stewardship, the Legal Department has actively promoted the rule of law in the Fund's member countries in a number of areas, including the development of the Fund's approach on anti-money laundering, combating terrorist financing and addressing corruption and improving governance, coupled with extensive technical assistance," Ms. Lagarde said. "His efforts to raise the profile of ethics and integrity both inside and outside of the Fund also stand out as both innovative and admirable. He will be sorely missed by all of us at the Fund and beyond."
Mr. Hagan joined the IMF's Legal Department in 1990 and rose through the ranks to be appointed General Counsel in 2005. Prior to the IMF, he was in private practice, first in New York and subsequently in Tokyo. He received his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center, a Master of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Kings College, University of London. The search for a replacement will begin shortly.
EPA Launches Research Vessel Lake Guardian to Monitor Lake Ontario's Health as Binational Science Initiative Gets Underway
WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun an extensive binational Cooperative Science Monitoring Initiative to focus on the protection and restoration of Lake Ontario and its watershed. U.S. and Canadian federal agencies are partnering with New York State and the Province of Ontario, as well as academic, environmental, and ecological organizations, to gather critical information about the chemical and biological conditions of Lake Ontario.
"We are fully dedicated to ensuring the health
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WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun an extensive binational Cooperative Science Monitoring Initiative to focus on the protection and restoration of Lake Ontario and its watershed. U.S. and Canadian federal agencies are partnering with New York State and the Province of Ontario, as well as academic, environmental, and ecological organizations, to gather critical information about the chemical and biological conditions of Lake Ontario.
"We are fully dedicated to ensuring the healthof Lake Ontario and all of the Great Lakes so we can better protect, maintain, and enhance environmentally sustainable economic opportunities," said Regional Administrator Pete Lopez. "This cooperative partnership at all levels of government will benefit the health of the lake and the local communities and economies that rely on it."
The priority of this year's monitoring of Lake Ontario, which is the lake's fourth cycle of intensive monitoring, is to improve the understanding of nutrients entering the Lake Ontario ecosystem and their impacts on water quality and the aquatic food web.
Background:
Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the United States and Canada are committed to improving the waters of the Great Lakes and issuing a Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP) for each Great Lake on a five-year cycle. This is Lake Ontario's fourth year monitoring and will identify environmental threats, set priorities for research and monitoring, and outline further action by governments and the public for its 2018-2022 LAMP.
Once the year-long monitoring program on Lake Ontario is completed, a summary report of their findings will be available for public review.
Using various research vessels, the agencies will be evaluating nutrients, plankton, prey fish, and predator fish. Smaller research boats will focus on near-shore activities such as evaluating nutrients and mussels, as well as performing algae research and diver surveys. The agencies will be using sophisticated equipment such as underwater cameras, satellite imagery, robotic gliders, and underwater unmanned vehicles to better characterize and document the lake's ecosystem.
The R/V Lake Guardian, which is owned by the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO), assists GLNPO in monitoring and reporting on the status and trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Annual surveys that sample water and biological life at designated locations in all five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario) are conducted by the R/V Lake Guardian.
For more information about the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement visit: https://www.epa.gov/glwqa
Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and Facebook at http://facebook.com/eparegion2
Chairman Wicker, Ranking Senator Cardin Urge President Trump to Call on President Trump to Free Oleg Sentsov
WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe issued the following news release:
In a letter on Friday (https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Sentsov%20letter%20signed.pdf), Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) and Ranking Commissioner Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) urged President Trump to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov from his unjust imprisonment. On May 14, 2018, Sentsov began a hunger strike, which he plans to continue until all Ukrainian political prisoners jailed in Russia are released.
The
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WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe issued the following news release:
In a letter on Friday (https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Sentsov%20letter%20signed.pdf), Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) and Ranking Commissioner Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) urged President Trump to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov from his unjust imprisonment. On May 14, 2018, Sentsov began a hunger strike, which he plans to continue until all Ukrainian political prisoners jailed in Russia are released.
Theletter reads in part:
"Oleg Sentsov has been a prisoner of conscience in Russia for more than four years. In May 2014, he was detained in his native Crimea, then illegally occupied by Russia, and brought to Moscow on unsubstantiated allegations of terrorism. Numerous governments and human rights organizations have dismissed these allegations as politically-charged, groundless fabrications orchestrated in retaliation for Sentsov's outspoken criticism of Russia's occupation of Crimea and his efforts to document human rights abuses there...
"As Russia hosts the World Cup in the coming weeks, the eyes of the world will be on the country. In the spirit of this unifying global event, we urge you to raise with President Putin the international approbation which Oleg Sentsov's immediate release would provide for him. Your advocacy on behalf of this brave Ukrainian patriot will be an important demonstration of U.S. human rights leadership around the world."
In April 2017, the U.S. Helsinki Commission held a briefing focusing on Russia's human rights violations against Ukrainian citizens, including Sentsov.
The full text of the letter can be found below:
The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We hope you will call on Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately and unconditionally to release the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov from his unjust imprisonment in Siberia. In light of Sentsov's hunger strike, our request is urgent.
Oleg Sentsov has been a prisoner of conscience in Russia for more than four years. In May 2014, he was detained in his native Crimea, then illegally occupied by Russia, and brought to Moscow on unsubstantiated allegations of terrorism. Numerous governments and human rights organizations have dismissed these allegations as politically-charged, groundless fabrications orchestrated in retaliation for Sentsov's outspoken criticism of Russia's occupation of Crimea and his efforts to document human rights abuses there.
On May 14, 2018, Mr. Sentsov declared he had begun an indefinite hunger strike, stating that "the one and only condition for its termination is the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners that are currently present on the territory of the Russian Federation." With his health already weakened, it is uncertain how long he can survive.
As Russia hosts the World Cup in the coming weeks, the eyes of the world will be on the country. In the spirit of this unifying global event, we urge you to raise with President Putin the international approbation which Oleg Sentsov's immediate release would provide for him. Your advocacy on behalf of this brave Ukrainian patriot will be an important demonstration of U.S. human rights leadership around the world.
Sincerely,
Celebrate Summer With Smithsonian 'Solstice Saturday'
WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
The Smithsonian will celebrate the first Saturday of summer-- "Solstice Saturday"--with free parties, programs and performances June 23. In addition to programs for adults and children, most Smithsonian museums will be open until midnight. Visitors who stay late can hear live music, drink champagne and explore museum exhibitions.
"Solstice Saturday" is held in association with By the People, an international arts and dialogue festival taking place across Washington from Thursday, June 21, to Sunday, June 24,
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WASHINGTON, June 18 -- The Smithsonian Institution issued the following news release:
The Smithsonian will celebrate the first Saturday of summer-- "Solstice Saturday"--with free parties, programs and performances June 23. In addition to programs for adults and children, most Smithsonian museums will be open until midnight. Visitors who stay late can hear live music, drink champagne and explore museum exhibitions.
"Solstice Saturday" is held in association with By the People, an international arts and dialogue festival taking place across Washington from Thursday, June 21, to Sunday, June 24,presented by Halcyon. The four-day festival will include interactive visual-art installations, performances, high-profile speakers and an augmented-reality art hunt.
The Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building will be the central hub for By the People, and it will host activities and art installations throughout the festival. On Saturday, the building will offer various programs, including an interactive conversational activity called "Common Ground" and a "Light of Summer" ceremony and celebration, an evening of music, movement and guided mediation with Washington, D.C.-based storyteller and artist Sheldon Scott.
The following is a sampling of the programs in Smithsonian museums Saturday, June 23:
America Now: Solstice Edition
The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery are collaborating to present this special evening of festivities. Events begin at the National Museum of American History with solstice-themed activities, including a scavenger hunt. For adult audiences, there will be a "speakeasy happy hour" with food and drink for purchase. Curators will share curious stories of what Americans have done at night throughout history in "lightning" talks.
Programs at the American History Museum end at 8:30 p.m., when visitors are encouraged to hop on the free pedi-cab procession to the Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Smithsonian American Art Museum Block Party and Beer Garden and close out the night at the National Portrait Gallery with live music by Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics, and Washington's own rapper and producer Oddisee.
Bring the Kids
The National Air and Space Museum will honor the summer solstice with a day and night of activities at the museum on the National Mall and at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Visitors of all ages can explore the science of the solstice through telescopes, planetarium shows and with hands-on activities about the seasons. At night, visitors can participate in a number of solstice and solar system-themed games or stargaze at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory.
From 3 to 9 p.m., the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun, with Andean music and dance. Visitors can make their own llama pendant or watercolor luminary, or learn how to dress a llama.
The National Museum of Natural History hosts "Family Night: Solstice Edition" from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Programming includes interactive activities, crafts, demonstrations and conversations with scientists. Visitors of all ages can tour the Pollinator Garden outside of the museum with expert Cynthia Brown from Smithsonian Gardens, catch a viewing of Pollinators Under Pressure and touch live insects in the Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion.
Evening Celebrations
The Enid A. Haupt Garden will come alive Saturday night with music on both sides of the parterre from 5:30-10:30 p.m. Visitors can enjoy meditative sounds from Washington, D.C.-based Transp0.se and Kerim the DJ in the Moongate Garden near the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Near the National Museum of African Art, a mix of Afro beats from DJ KWeRK can be heard in the museum's Fountain Garden. On the Freer Gallery steps, violinist Simon Shaheen and the ensemble Qantara will perform a blend of jazz, Latin and Arab musical traditions.
From 9 p.m. until midnight, the National Museum of the American Indian will host an evening dance party on the Welcome Plaza. Visitors can grab a glow stick and dance to music from a DJ or browse through the museum's galleries. Refreshments and food will be available for purchase from the Abunai food truck and in the Mitsitam Espresso Bar.
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will host an open house until midnight. Visitors can explore the galleries and enjoy music, lounging and cocktails on its outdoor plaza. Visitors will also get a first look at new exhibitions "Baselitz: Six Decades," the first major U.S. retrospective of legendary German artist Georg Baselitz in more than 20 years, and "Does the Mind Rule the Body or Does the Body Rule the Mind?" presenting an exciting new generation of performance artists.
The Smithsonian thanks the following for their promotional support of Solstice Saturday: DC Circulator, New Tradition Media, Southwest Business Improvement District and the Washington Nationals. A complete list of Solstice Saturday events and programming can be found at si.edu/solsticesaturday.
Bitterly Divided Communities Brought Together by Film Festivals, Workshops
PIRIATI, Panama, June 18 -- The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute issued the following news:
The Guna, Embera and cattle-ranching communities of eastern Panama share the same threatened landscape but have been divided for generations over territorial disputes. A series of filmmaking workshops and film festivals have brought some members of the community together in ways not previously considered possible.
As film screenings go, it was rather low-key.
There was no red carpet and the films were projected on a sheet in an open-air meeting place. The stars and producers sat in the audience
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PIRIATI, Panama, June 18 -- The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute issued the following news:
The Guna, Embera and cattle-ranching communities of eastern Panama share the same threatened landscape but have been divided for generations over territorial disputes. A series of filmmaking workshops and film festivals have brought some members of the community together in ways not previously considered possible.
As film screenings go, it was rather low-key.
There was no red carpet and the films were projected on a sheet in an open-air meeting place. The stars and producers sat in the audienceinconspicuously and relaxed as if they were right at home. In fact, many of them were.
The collection of short films shown this evening were filmed and produced by the communities surrounding Panama's Bayano Lake -- the Embera and Guna indigenous peoples and cattle-ranching Panamanians usually referred to as campesinos.
Only a few years earlier, an event involving members from all three groups would have been unheard of. Generations of territorial disputes and competition for declining resources have long kept these neighbors uncomfortably divided.
"This was something that never happened," said Rodolfo Cunampio, the leader, or cacique, of the Embera communities in Bayano. "Even though we are indigenous along with the Guna, we have a history that divides us."
That history includes stories of war that may have happened hundreds of years ago. Both groups suffered under the Spanish Conquest. More recently, they've had disputes with "colonists" who moved from depleted landscapes in central Panama to clear land and raise cattle in eastern Panama.
The three groups were further antagonized by the construction of the Bayano Dam in the 1970s, which led to resettlements and reduction of available land.
Putting aside generations of rancor -- at least for a few dozen members of the different groups -- resulted in a beautiful collection of thoughtful films that celebrate life in the Bayano region. The films tackle complex issues such as deforestation, pollution and concerns with the central government. Pieces also celebrate music and traditions of the different groups. The common thread throughout is their shared, threatened natural environment.
"In the end, the result has been that the three players, independent of their vision or of their culture, were required to join forces to protect the Bayano watershed and protect our natural resources," said Cunampio.
The festival and workshops were supported by Canada's Wapikoni Mobile which helps indigenous communities throughout the Americas develop filmmaking skills.
The project's success required special attention to local customs.
"Because how the indigenous villages are still living in communal ways, we very often make collective or co-creation work," said Francois Laurent, a filmmaker and Wapikoni mentor for the project. "They are looking for a way to communicate and establish dialogues. We're trying to discover and build their own cinematic language."
Next-generation pride
The screening earlier this year in the town of Piriati was a homecoming celebration for the films. In the five years that the project ran in Bayano, the films were shown at festivals across the globe, making stops in Canada, Argentina, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, among others.
Isac Dogirama, one of the young filmmakers who learned the trade in the workshops associated with the Bayano International Film Festival, said the experience was transformational. He collaborated in two outstanding pieces. One documented the discrimination that members of each group felt at the hands of others, but noted a general sentiment that relations were improving. The other documented the cultural differences in childbirth in Bayano's communities.
Learning the filmmaking skills wasn't Dogirama's only challenge. He needed to learn his native Embera language as well. One elder he interviewed only spoke the tongue, which Dogirama hadn't bothered to learn very well, just like many of his peers. "From that point on, I've changed," he said. "Today I speak it with my mother and it has helped me a lot with the language."
Dogirama said that the cultural exchange started with the film workshops will continue.
"With the unity of the (film) group, we have started to interact and know one another better," he said, adding that the workshop alumni now visit one another's communities "without fear."
Research on impact
Students from Canada's McGill University regularly work in the Bayano area under the tutelage of Catherine Potvin, a McGill professor and long-time affiliated researcher with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. A group of students who participated in this year's McGill field semester in Panama surveyed film festival participants and community leaders to better understand the impact of the workshops and resulting films.
"What we found, by far, was that intercultural exchange was the most significant of the impacts," said Carlos Alvarado, a STRI intern advised by Potvin. "Literally every single person that we interviewed said that this project facilitated intercultural exchange."
Youth learning, women's empowerment, indigenous empowerment, cinema as a tool for social change and inter-cultural exposure (knowledge that their cultures were transmitted via the films to audiences far removed from their territories) were other parameters for which McGill students also found positive results.
Alvarado emphasized an unexpected finding -- that elders from Guna and Embera communities were thankful to have these films as historic documentaries.
"They're worried that their culture is dying out," said Alvarado. "They are very thankful to have these films as an archive."
In the what-would-you-have-done-differently category, interviewees told McGill students that they would like to make films not for dissemination but to document traditions for future generations' reference. They would also like to have film workshop directors from their own community, instead of having to rely exclusively on outside mentorship.
That's definitely possible today. One student from the film festival workshops is now studying filmmaking in Panama City. He has also helped form a collective that now independently produces its own films in Bayano.
Bank of New York Issues Remarks at Governance & Culture Reform Conference
NEW YORK, June 18 -- The Federal Reserve's Bank of New York issued the following remarks by President and CEO John C. Williams at the Governance and Culture Reform Conference:
"It's a pleasure to speak at today's conference on this critically important issue, one that Bill Dudley and his colleagues have done tremendous work bringing to the forefront over the past few years. It's also an honor to be sharing a stage with Bill today, and I'd like to thank him for his outstanding leadership of the New York Fed.
"I've learned a great deal from this conference, especially hearing the diverse perspectives
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NEW YORK, June 18 -- The Federal Reserve's Bank of New York issued the following remarks by President and CEO John C. Williams at the Governance and Culture Reform Conference:
"It's a pleasure to speak at today's conference on this critically important issue, one that Bill Dudley and his colleagues have done tremendous work bringing to the forefront over the past few years. It's also an honor to be sharing a stage with Bill today, and I'd like to thank him for his outstanding leadership of the New York Fed.
"I've learned a great deal from this conference, especially hearing the diverse perspectivesand experiences of regulators from across the globe, industry leaders, and academic experts. The speakers and discussions have already covered a lot of ground, so I'll keep my remarks brief.
"This afternoon I'm going to talk about the urgent need to focus our attention on banking culture in supervision and what that means in practice. Before I go any further, I have to give the usual Fed disclaimer that the views I express are my own, and not necessarily those of anyone else in the Federal Reserve System.
"The Good Times Are When to Get Your House in Order
"In the wake of the financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn, the world's attention was trained on financial services. The crisis severely eroded people's trust in the industry, both here and abroad.
"Governments and regulators quickly got to work fixing the main deficiencies in the existing regulatory framework. These included requiring much stronger loss-absorbing capital to weather severe economic downturns, demanding greater liquidity cushions to withstand market and funding disruptions, and creating a robust resolution framework to protect both the economy and the taxpayer in the event of a failure of a systemically important firm.
"These changes were appropriate and necessary. We must not lose sight of their importance in safeguarding the soundness of the financial system and in ensuring that future generations do not have to suffer the economic trauma that we lived through this past decade.
"Bringing us to the present day, we are in a much, much better place, in terms of both the financial sector and the overall economy. We have a more robust regulatory regime in place, and banks are well positioned to survive future storms.
"Furthermore, our economy's in great shape; we're in the second-longest expansion in history, and economic data from both the United States and countries around the world continue to trend upwards. As a policymaker, solid growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near our target are all exactly what I want to see.
"Paradoxically, it's precisely this sense that things have gotten so much better that worries me most. Although we have seen marked improvements in the critical areas of capital, liquidity, and resolution, we have not yet fully addressed the root causes of many of the problems that have plagued the financial sector. I am thinking of not only the excessive risk-taking and leverage in the run-up to the crisis, but also the repeated scandals related to LIBOR, FX, money laundering, sales practices; unfortunately, the list goes on and on. Underlying these scandals is often an inadequate corporate culture, where accountability and ethical conduct have fallen by the wayside.
"The good times we're in can exacerbate these problems in three ways. First, there's a risk of complacency setting in--an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Second, in a strong economy, the hard numbers that we tend to focus on when examining profits, losses, capital, and liquidity can look like everything's coming up roses, even when an uncomfortable reality lies beneath. And, finally, culture is a long-run investment that takes many years to develop and requires constant reinforcement to preserve. If you let it erode, you can't go to the market and obtain a new "culture" overnight.
"As I mentioned, establishing a more robust regulatory framework was absolutely necessary for a healthier, more resilient financial system. But, it is far from sufficient. The danger we face today is that people may conclude that the hardened defenses are enough, and other supervisory activities around culture, conduct, and governance are superfluous.
"This feeling that we've built a strong fortress able to withstand any onslaught may create a mood of complacency and detract attention from the dangers that could be growing within the walls of financial institutions.
"This problem is aggravated by the fact that the hard numbers studied by regulators and supervisors should look great when the economy's doing well. Profits are high and loan losses low when the economy is humming along. But, strong numbers in a strong economy don't give you the full picture. They can't always tell you whether people are cutting corners, taking excessive risks, or violating rules and regulations. Even worse, they can distract you from digging into the truth and unearthing unethical business practices and misconduct that may hide below the surface.
"The well-known challenge with culture is that, in contrast with things like capital and liquidity, culture feels "softer" and, therefore, more difficult to measure. And often in finance there's a tendency to disregard what can't be quantified. But just because it's hard to measure doesn't mean we should ignore it or downplay its importance. As we heard throughout today's conference, culture shapes every conversation, every decision, and every action; it is at the root of whether an organization performs in a manner consistent with its mission, or not.
"How to Achieve a Better Banking Culture
"This brings me back to the issue of culture as a long-term investment that can't be "fixed" overnight. Several years ago, Rich Lyons, Dean at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, spoke at the San Francisco Fed and talked about culture in a way that has stuck with me ever since. Transforming a culture is a five- to ten-year project; keeping it that way is an ongoing mission that requires strong leadership and consistent action.
"As a leader of a large organization, I've taken that message to heart. I've found that a culture based on the principle of open and authentic dialogue, that embraces our diverse backgrounds and perspectives delivers better results. I've found that well-defined collective values and direction lead to greater collaboration and innovation. Finally, I've found that this work is never a finished project, but an ongoing one that constantly evolves.
"I started by saying that I feel a sense of urgency in addressing banking culture. So where do I see the priorities for supervision?
"As supervisors, we need to ensure that bank management and boards are exerting strong and effective leadership with robust governance. That means holding management and boards of directors to high standards in terms of culture and conduct, even when the numbers look rosy. It means ensuring corporate values are clearly articulated and incentives are squarely align with a bank's strategic goals. It means identifying, communicating, and mitigating risks in a timely and effective manner. It means that employees feel empowered to raise their hands if they see wrongdoing, and that comprehensive fixes are implemented when something goes wrong.
Conclusion
"In conclusion, when times are good, we rarely feel an urgency to make changes. And these are certainly good times. But numbers can have a funny way of not revealing the whole truth. A sound spreadsheet may mask unethical behavior, a well-capitalized bank may be on the road to ruin, and a neglected corporate culture can turn toxic.
"We must stay vigilant around the "softer" side of supervision. Strong culture and robust corporate governance are our first lines of defense. They're a critical part of the tool kit when it comes to protecting people, banks, and the economy from risk, scandal, and harm."
