. 5 the practice resulted in boards of directors reviewing and signing off on management ’ s compliance with every mra and mria. when we began that practice in 2013, our intention was to ensure that directors were in a position to hold management accountable in addressing risk management shortcomings. by 2014, we realized that the practice was “ almost surely distracting from strategic and risk - related analyses and oversight by boards ". 6 for perspective, a large banking firm may have one hundred or more mras outstanding at a given time, many of which are at a level of granularity that is more appropriate for management to remediate, with board oversight. the new proposed framework is designed to make boards more effective in holding management accountable in these efforts. while we have proposed that most mras and mrias be addressed in the first instance to management and not to the board, the board would continue to receive mras where board practices are at issue or where management has failed to promptly and adequately take the required actions. the board would also continue to receive copies of examination and inspection reports, including formal communications with the institution. in the parlance of the proposed guidance i just outlined, we fully expect the board to actively manage the information flow related to mras and to hold management accountable for remediating them. in doing so, a board may choose to track progress and closure of mras through an appropriate board committee, rather than getting into the granular detail on every individual mra. conclusion we need financial institutions that are strong enough to support economic growth by lending through the economic cycle. to achieve that goal, we need strong and effective boards of directors at firms of all sizes. a strong and effective board provides strategic leadership and oversight, which is much more challenging and important than checking off lists of assigned tasks. i look forward to our continuing dialogue on this subject today and in the months to come, and reviewing carefully the comments received on the proposal. 1 the views i express here are my own and not necessarily those of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. 2 jerome h. powell, “ relationship between regulation and economic growth, ” ( testimony before the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, u. s. senate, june 22, 2017 ). 3 see sr letter 04 – 18, “ bank holding company rating system, ” 69 fr 70444 ( december 6, 2004 ). 4 see www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / press

janet l yellen : semiannual monetary policy report to the congress testimony by ms janet l yellen, chair of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, before the committee on financial services, us house of representatives, washington dc, 10 february 2016. * * * chairman hensarling, ranking member waters, and other members of the committee, i am pleased to present the federal reserve ’ s semiannual monetary policy report to the congress. in my remarks today, i will discuss the current economic situation and outlook before turning to monetary policy. current economic situation and outlook since my appearance before this committee last july, the economy has made further progress toward the federal reserve ’ s objective of maximum employment. and while inflation is expected to remain low in the near term, in part because of the further declines in energy prices, the federal open market committee ( fomc ) expects that inflation will rise to its 2 percent objective over the medium term. in the labor market, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs rose 2. 7 million in 2015, and posted a further gain of 150, 000 in january of this year. the cumulative increase in employment since its trough in early 2010, is now more than 13 million jobs. meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 4. 9 percent in january, 0. 8 percentage point below its level a year ago and in line with the median of fomc participants ’ most recent estimates of its longer - run normal level. other measures of labor market conditions have also shown solid improvement, with noticeable declines over the past year in the number of individuals who want and are available to work but have not actively searched recently, and in the number of people who are working part time but would rather work full time. however, these measures remain above the levels seen prior to the recession, suggesting that some slack in labor markets remains. thus, while labor market conditions have improved substantially, there is still room for further sustainable improvement. the strong gains in the job market last year were accompanied by a continued moderate expansion in economic activity. u. s. real gross domestic product is estimated to have increased about 1 – 3 / 4 percent in 2015. over the course of the year, subdued foreign growth and the appreciation of the dollar restrained net exports. in the fourth quarter of last year, growth in the gross domestic product is reported to have slowed more sharply, to an annual rate of just 3 / 4 percent ; again, growth was held back by weak net exports