Janet Yellen
Following her presentation of the Federal Reserve Board’s semiannual report on monetary policy and the US economic outlook, Chair Janet Yellen provided some short but interesting comments regarding cybersecurity an financial institutions.
During a question and answer session following her presentation, Yellen was asked by Senate Banking Committee member Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana about the scale of cyber risk to financial institutions.
The following is Yellen’s response:
Well, I think it’s on everyone’s [top list of concerns] that we have about the financial system, about the problems facing financial organizations, and I would include the Federal Reserve in that, too.
It’s a top concern of our own given the importance of our own systems to the functioning of the payment system of the US and global economy. Internally, we’re paying a great deal of attention to make sure that we’re addressing ever-escalating threats to our own operations, the banks that we supervise. We are very attentive and have experts who work with those banks to make sure that they’re attentive.
It is a larger problem, and this is one where cooperation is needed among card systems, retailers and others involved in the financial system. And conceivably, legislation might be needed in this area.
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Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
