Fed’s Williams: Rate hiking pace did not cause banking turmoil

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York President “Financial system troubles that drove the central bank to provide large amounts of credit to banks is not collateral damage from the Fed’s aggressive effort to lower inflation.”

John Williams, who is also Fed’s Vice Chairman of the FOMC Committee, said on Monday “I personally don’t think the pace of rate increases was behind the issues at the two banks back in March”. He also denied any clear signs of a credit crunch in the US economy following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

“We haven’t seen any clear signs yet of credit conditions tightening,” Williams said, during a meeting with students at New York University.

Key Quotes:

Viewed the trouble at the two banks as unique in nature and unlikely to reflect broader trends in the financial system.

I don’t really worry about the divergence.

I think part of it is because there is an expectation among many market participants and economists that the economy’s going to slow even more than I expect.

While past episodes of financial sector stress point to tightening credit, as it now stands, ‘we haven’t seen clear signs yet of credit conditions tightening and we don’t know how big this effect will be’ if it happens.