American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen projected calm on Tuesday after recent regional bank collapses but told a gathering of bankers that additional rescue arrangements "could be warranted" if any new failures at smaller institutions jeopardize financial stability.
Yellen, who made her remarks at the American Bankers Association, said that overall "the situation is stabilizing."
"And the U.S. banking system remains sound," Yellen said, drawing clear differences between recent events and the 2008 financial meltdown, which triggered trillions of dollars of financial losses globally.
"This is different from 2008," she said. "2008 was a solvency crisis, rather what we're seeing now is contagious bank runs."
Yellen's remarks come after a series of troubling bank developments this month.
Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California, failed on March 10 after depositors rushed to withdraw money amid anxiety over the bank's health. It was the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history. Regulators convened over the following weekend and announced that New York-based Signature Bank also had failed. They said that all depositors at both banks, including those holding uninsured funds, those exceeding US$250,000, would be protected by federal deposit insurance.
And last week a third bank, San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, was fortified by US$30 billion in funds raised by 11 of the biggest U.S. banks in an attempt to prevent it from collapsing.
The government is now determined to restore public confidence in the banking system and to prevent any more turmoil. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched investigations into the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and President Joe Biden has called on Congress to strengthen rules on regional banks and to impose tougher penalties on executives of failed banks.
Yellen said the government's intervention was necessary to "protect the broader banking system" and more rescue efforts could be necessary, noting that the government is still closely monitoring the banking sector.
"Similar actions could be warranted if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose the risk of contagion," she said.
When Yellen was asked by the association's president, Rob Nichols, what policies need to be adjusted in light of recent events, she said, "I don't want to speculate at this point on what those adjustments might be. What I'm focused on is stabilizing our system."
Yellen faced the Senate Finance Committee last week and offered upbeat reassurances to rattled bank depositors and investors that the U.S. banking system "remains sound" and Americans "can feel confident" about the safety of their deposits.
She will appear in front of congressional panels twice more this week, in the Senate and the House, and will inevitably face more questions about the nature of the bank failures and the government's effort to quell them.
"Let me be clear: The government's recent actions have demonstrated our resolute commitment to take the necessary steps to ensure that depositors' savings and the banking system remain safe," she said.
While details are still being released on the banks' failures, Democratic lawmakers and some economists say a 2018 rollback of portions of a far-reaching 2010 law intended to prevent a future financial crisis were a primary cause of the institutional failures.
Ahead of Yellen's speech, at a panel discussing the state of the banking system, Scott Anderson, president of Zions Bank, said he doesn't think the 2018 rollback is related to the bank failures.
"Congress needs to be careful," Anderson said. "They need to look at what happened. They need to have a thorough debate and a thorough discussion. But they shouldn't jump to any immediate conclusions. I don't think these failures show that there's any problem within the banking regulations that we have now."
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.