Data on weekly jobless claims, trade and third-quarter productivity released at 8:30 a.m. … SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce speaks on the regulatory outlook at Bloomberg’s Financial Innovation Summit at 9:35 a.m. … House Financial Services subcommittee holds a hearing on exploitation of natural resources to finance illicit activity at 10 a.m. … SEC Chair Gary Gensler speaks at Securities Docket’s virtual Securities Enforcement Forum at 1 p.m. PARSING POWELL’S MESSAGE — Here’s more from Victoria on the key moments from Powell’s press conference yesterday, and more importantly, what they mean. CBA’S RICHARD HUNT STEPPING DOWN — From your MM host, who reported it first: “The longtime head of one of Washington’s biggest bank lobbying groups is stepping down. Richard Hunt, who has led the Consumer Bankers Association since June 2009, told the group’s board of directors Wednesday morning that he plans to leave the organization, which represents 69 big retail banks, next summer after helping with the search for a successor.” OCC CHIEF PLOTS TOUGHER CRYPTO, FINTECH OVERSIGHT — From Victoria again: “Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said Wednesday that his agency has completed a review of key policies around financial technology and cryptocurrencies and concluded that some upstart firms need to be more stringently regulated. “Hsu suggested in a speech to the American Fintech Council that he’d like to subject fintechs and cryptocurrency firms that provide banking services to the same regulatory standards as traditional lenders. Some of those companies have already applied for charters at the OCC, and he said he would be giving them feedback ‘in the coming weeks.’” SEC OVERHAULS GUIDELINES FOR SHAREHOLDER PROPOSALS — From our Kellie Mejdrich: “The SEC on Wednesday raised the bar for public companies to exclude investor proposals from shareholder ballots in cases involving significant social policy issues, triggering objections from the business lobby and the agency's Republican commissioners.” LAWMAKERS URGE BROADER SEC APPROVAL OF BITCOIN ETFs: Reps. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.) sent a letter to Gensler on Wednesday urging him to approve an exchange-traded fund based on the spot price of Bitcoin because the SEC already OK’d a product based on futures contracts in October. FINANCIAL FIRMS MAKE BIG CLIMATE PROMISES AT COP26 — From our colleagues Zack Colman and Lorraine Woellert: “Political leaders are showering financial titans with praise at global climate talks. But their show of pageantry and back-patting is masking a deeper concern: that the banking industry’s pledges to help fight global warming are vague and unenforceable.” TREASURY NOMINEES CONFIRMED — The Senate voted 78-21 Wednesday to confirm Treasury economist Ben Harris, a Joe Biden campaign adviser and Biden’s chief economist when he was vice president, as assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy. Jonathan Davidson, Treasury’s chief lobbyist, was also confirmed Tuesday night in a 88-10 vote to be deputy undersecretary for legislative affairs. HOUSE DEMOCRATS REVEAL REVISED SALT CAP PLAN — From our Brian Faler: “The proposal comes after a previous plan to suspend the cap for five years was sharply criticized by progressives who called it a giveaway to the rich. But the House’s revamped proposal was quickly panned too by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) who said it still offered too much to high earners.” Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew weighs in: Speaking at an event on tax enforcement Wednesday hosted by the Center for American Progress, Lew called the possibility of a full SALT cap repeal “an outrage.” “It would have the effect of giving multimillionaires hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax cuts in a bill that’s really supposed to be aimed at restoring equity,” he said. “There are other ways to provide relief to families who earn around or in the neighborhood of $400,000 a year who pay a lot of real estate taxes and income taxes. I hope that as they resolve that they find a way to do it that targets relief where it’s really needed and that they don’t create something that I think would be quite embarrassing if it were to happen.” (h/t CAP’s Seth Hanlon) At the same CAP event: Natasha Sarin, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, said she hoped a dropped requirement for banks to report account information to the IRS can be restored to the administration’s social policy spending bill, Reuters’ David Lawder reported. BEHOLD, THE WEST COAST DEFICIT HAWK — Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel was the keynote speaker at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s Annual Budget Ball Reception on Tuesday night on the roof of 101 Constitution. Spiegel told the crowd at the start of his Q&A with CRFB president Maya MacGuineas that it was good to be back in Washington because his parents had met on a blind date at the Old Ebbitt Grill "so I'm kind of a product of D.C." He said he learned from MacGuineas that for every six dollars America invests in seniors, it invests only a dollar in young people. "One of the things that cuts across all policies is, our policies investing in children have very, very high return and of course our policies that invest in seniors are less so, not that we shouldn't do it." (h/t Daniel Lippmann) SPOTTED: Leon Panetta, Mitch Daniels, Miranda Kerr, Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Angus King (I-Maine), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Eric Cantor, Michael Steele and Steve Rattner. | 
