central banks to supply dollar liquidity in their own jurisdictions, helping to reduce strains in global money markets and, in turn, in our own markets. to address illiquidity and impaired functioning in the market for commercial paper, the treasury implemented a temporary guarantee program for balances held in money market mutual funds, helping to stem the outflows from these funds. the federal reserve put in place a temporary lending facility that provides financing for banks to purchase high - quality asset - backed commercial paper from money market funds, thus providing some relief for money market funds that have needed to sell their holdings to meet redemptions. moreover, we soon will be implementing a new commercial paper funding facility that will provide a backstop to commercial paper markets by purchasing highly rated commercial paper from issuers at a term of three months. the recently enacted emergency economic stabilization act provided critically important new tools to address the dysfunction in financial markets and thus reduce the accompanying risks to the economy. the troubled asset relief program ( tarp ) authorized by the legislation will allow the treasury to undertake two highly complementary activities. first, the treasury will use tarp funds to provide capital to financial institutions. indeed, last week, nine of the nation's largest financial institutions indicated their willingness to accept capital from the program, and many other institutions, large and small, are expected to follow suit in coming weeks. second, the treasury will purchase or guarantee troubled mortgage - related and possibly other assets held by banks and other financial institutions. taken together, these measures should help rebuild confidence in the financial system, increase the liquidity of financial markets, and improve the ability of financial institutions to raise capital from private sources. as another measure to improve confidence, the act also temporarily raised the limit on the deposit insurance coverage provided by the federal deposit insurance corporation ( fdic ) and the national credit union administration from $ 100, 000 to $ 250, 000 per account, effective immediately. unfortunately, the loss of confidence in financial institutions became so severe in recent weeks that additional steps in this direction proved necessary. the fdic, the federal reserve board, and the secretary of the treasury in consultation with the president determined that significant risks to the stability of the financial system were present. with this determination, the fdic was able to use its authority to provide, for a specified period, unlimited insurance coverage of funds held in non - interest - bearing transactions accounts, such as payroll accounts. in addition, the fdic announced that it would guarantee the senior unse

areas of focus for regulatory reform. the first is simplification and recalibation of regulation of small and medium - sized banks. we are working to build on the relief we have provided in the areas of call reports and exam cycles, by developing a proposal to simplify the generally applicable capital framework that applies to community banking organizations. the second area is resolution plans. the fed and the federal deposit insurance corporation believe that it is worthwhile to consider extending the cycle for living will submissions from annual to once every two years, and focusing every other of these filings on key topics of interest and material changes from the prior full plan submission. we are also considering other changes, as i discussed last week when testifying to congress. third, the federal reserve is reassessing whether the volcker rule implementing regulation 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches most efficiently achieves its policy objectives, and we look forward to working with the other four volcker rule agencies to find ways to improve that regulation. in our view, there is room for eliminating or relaxing aspects of the implementing regulation in ways that do not undermine the volcker rule ’ s main policy goals. fourth, we will continue to enhance the transparency of stress testing and the comprehensive capital analysis and review ( ccar ). we will soon seek public feedback concerning possible forms of enhanced disclosure, including a range of indicative loss rates predicted by the federal reserve ’ s models for various loan and securities portfolios, and information about risk characteristics that contribute to the loss - estimate ranges. we will also provide more detail on the qualitative aspects of stress testing in next week ’ s ccar disclosure. finally, the federal reserve is taking a fresh look at the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio. we believe that the leverage ratio is an important backstop to the risk - based capital framework, but that it is important to get the relative calibrations of the leverage ratio and the risk - based capital requirements right. u. s. banks today are as strong as any in the world. as we consider the progress that has been achieved in improving the resiliency and resolvability of our banking industry, it is important for us to look for ways to reduce unnecessary burden. we must also be vigilant against new risks that may develop. in all of our efforts, our goal is to establish a regulatory framework that helps ensure the resiliency of our financial system, the availability of credit, economic growth, and financial market efficiency. we look