Report: Executive Vice President of San Francisco Fed to Retire

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s executive vice president of the supervision and credit group, Azher Abbasi, will reportedly retire on Oct. 31.

Abbasi will be succeeded by Niel Willardson, who will become interim executive vice president on Oct. 1, Bloomberg reported Monday (Aug. 28), citing an email from a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fed. Willardson was formerly an official at the Minneapolis Fed, Reuters reported Monday.

The San Francisco Fed did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Abbasi and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly faced scrutiny following the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and other lenders earlier this year, according to the Bloomberg report. The regional office is responsible for the supervision of small and medium-sized banks.

It was reported in March that while Daly faced criticism during congressional hearings around the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, big banks like that are largely overseen by Fed officials in Washington rather than regional offices.

While regional Fed offices supervise banks with assets under $100 billion, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington watches the banks with assets higher than that threshold, CNBC reported March 31. Because Silicon Valley Bank had assets over $100 billion, the key decisions around its supervision are likely to have been made in Washington.

In other news around the Federal Reserve, a Fed supervisory letter on the process for state member banks using dollar tokens, such as stablecoins, to facilitate payments drew the ire of members of Congress on Monday.

The conflict follows the Fed’s release of guidelines earlier this month for state member banks to first get a written supervisory nonobjection from the Federal Reserve before issuing, holding or transacting in dollar tokens. This requirement is aimed at ensuring that banks have appropriate risk management practices in place.

Lawmakers on Monday criticized the Fed’s actions, charging that the Fed was undermining congressional efforts to put together stablecoin regulations. U.S. Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., French Hill, R-Ark., and Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., criticized the Fed’s move in a letter sent to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. A Fed spokesperson told PYMNTS that the organization has received the letter and plans to respond.