Daines: SF Fed Said ‘Financial Risks from Climate Change’ Were ‘Top of Mind’ Issue as Fed Hiked Rates Months Before SVB Collapse

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) criticized regulators at the San Francisco Federal Reserve for focusing on climate change and pointed out that the bank characterized “financial risks from climate change” as a “top of mind” concern back in October of 2022.

Daines said, “I’ll tell you, if you look at what happened in San Francisco, the San Francisco regulators were focused on climate change. In fact, when we went right to their website, they said, what’s ‘top of mind’ for our work in the 12th district, that’s the San Francisco district, this is back in October of last year. It said, ‘financial risks from climate change.’ They were asleep at the wheel. And Neil, you compare that to the Richmond district, that’s the fifth district of the Federal Reserve, they said rising rates and interest rates [are] what need to be focused on in terms of risk management. So, what you had here, is you had a woke San Francisco group of regulators working with woke corporate executives at the Silicon Valley Bank. This was the perfect storm to take their eye off the ball of the real risk, which was rising interest rates, [a] decrease in bond values, and liquidity challenges.”

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