Fulcrum Perspectives

An interactive blog sharing the Fulcrum team's policy updates and analysis.

Francis Kelly 8/4/25 Francis Kelly 8/4/25

U.S. Financial Regulatory Week Ahead

The White House Releases Digital Financial Technology Report, Fed Governor Kugler Steps Down, the SEC Takes a Road Trip While the Rest of Washington Goes on Vacation

August 4 - 8, 2025

Congress is gone until early September, and lawyers, lobbyists, and public affairs experts are streaming out of the Capital for vacation. There is not a lot going on this week in the financial regulatory space other than Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaking at the Kansas Bankers Association.

But last week ended up being a blockbuster of regulatory activity before vacations started. First, the White House released its long-awaited report “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology.” The report is chock-full of orders for the SEC and CFTC to begin the process of further refining the crypto regulatory world and recommendations for Congress to move on legislation.

The report came on the heels of a major speech by SEC Chair Paul Akins launching a new initiative at the SEC seeking to update the financial markets and its structure. Dubbed “Project Crypto” the overall will touch all aspects of the financial markets the SEC regulates.

But we also saw at the CFTC another setback for Chair-nominee Brian Quintenz’s confirmation – this time being the White House asking the Senate Agriculture Committee to hold up on a committee confirmation vote for unexplained reasons. A variety of wild reasons are being pointed to being the cause ranging from the Winklevoss twins complaining about Quintenz to President Trump to forces inside leading emails putting Quintenz in a bad light (the best read-out of the situation can be found in July 31 edition of Capitol Account – still by the far the best in-depth regulatory source you can find out there.). Whatever the reason, Quintenz is not likely going to get confirmed until late September or sometime in October at the earliest.

Also last week, Federal Reserve Board Governor Adriana Kugler announced her intention to step down from the Fed five months early. This gives President Trump the opportunity to put one more friendly vote on the Fed. What we are waiting for is to see if another Fed Governor steps down soon, too. We have reason to believe another has raised his hand inside the Fed to Chair Jay Powell. When that resignation comes, we do not know. But it is coming.

As we said above, there really is not much going on this week in Washington, as you can see below. We hope you have a great week.

U.S. Congressional Hearings

U.S. Senate

· The Senate is out of session for the August recess and will return on September 1.

House of Representatives

· The House is out of session for the August recess and will return on September 2.

Federal Meetings & Events

Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks

· Wednesday, August 6, 2:00 p.m. – Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa D. Cook gives a speech on the U.S and Global Economy at A Central Bank Perspective on the Evolving Global Landscape Conference (virtual). Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins will also speak.

· Thursday, August 7, 10:00 a.m. – Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic's takes part in a virtual fireside chat during a session with the Florida Institute of CFOs.

· Saturday, August 9, 12:15 p.m. – Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman will speak at the Kansas Bankers Association (KBA) CEO and Senior Management Summit and Annual Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

U.S. Treasury Department