Insights: Policy

Crypto Market Structure/Stablecoins

Senate Republicans are pushing for a vote on crypto market structure legislation in the Banking and Agriculture Committees by the end of this year. They had hoped the committee votes would take place in September, but negotiations with Democrats have not proceeded smoothly and the process is moving more slowly than anticipated. A set of...

Bank Capital/Liquidity

The Fed’s work to shift the direction of bank capital/liquidity requirements has begun to accelerate, with the release of its proposed changes to stress testing last week and what Vice Chair Bowman said would be finalization of its revisions to the eSLR in the “next few weeks or a month.” She didn’t specify a precise timeline for proposing Basel...

The U.S. and China agreed to a one-year trade truce in which the U.S. will reduce fentanyl tariffs by 10% and ease export controls while China will buy U.S. agricultural goods and ease rare earth export controls, among other promised trade-offs. The deal does not address increased sales to China of advanced semiconductor chips, nor the U.S....

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs, Cigna)

Cigna announced that its PBM, Express Scripts (under the Evernorth division), will shift to a rebate-free model in the commercial/employer-sponsored market. Under this model, discounts on drugs will be passed through upfront to beneficiaries at the pharmacy counter instead of relying on post-purchase rebates. This change will begin with fully...

Healthcare Extenders/Reforms (ACA eAPTCs, PBMs, HSAs, Extenders, MA, Site Neutral)

The government shutdown continues without a clear off-ramp, and we will soon reach a key inflection point regarding the ACA enhanced subsidies (the start of open enrollment on 11/1, the date by which consumers will start seeing increased prices for their existing or new policies). Republicans remain firm that the expiring eAPTCs should only be...

Russia Sanctions/Tariffs

In the wake of the U.S. and Europe increasing sanctions on Russia, there is a growing expectation in Congress that President Trump will support passage of a bill that would allow the U.S. to impose additional tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy and impose other sanctions. Senate Russia hawks want a vote on that bill within the next month...