Powell says U.S. Fed is reviewing 'concerning' Archegos bank losses – CBS '60 Minutes'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is monitoring the implosion of New York fund Archegos Capital and analyzing why some banks suffered billions of dollars in losses, but the incident does not raise broader systemic risk worries, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said.

Archegos, a family office run by ex-Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, along with major banks that financed the fund’s trades, lost billions of dollars last month as its leveraged bets on media stocks quickly soured.

Credit Suisse and Nomura bore the brunt of the pain, losing $4.7 billion and $2 billion respectively.

“This is an event that we’re monitoring very carefully and working with regulators here and around the world to understand carefully,” Powell told CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday.

While Powell said the incident did not raise concerns over systemic risks to the institutions or the financial system, it was “concerning” the banks suffered such big losses at the hands of one client in a relatively well-understood business.

“We’re going to understand that and get to the bottom of it. What we try to do is make sure that the banks understand the risks that they’re running and have systems in place to manage them. This would appear to be a significant shortfall – a failure on that front,” said Powell.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Senate Banking Committee chair Sherrod Brown have also said they are reviewing the incident.

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