Fed's Bowman Says Inflation Above Goal, But No Urgency to Act

By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa

BANGKOK--There is room to assess economic developments before taking further monetary policy action, said Michelle Bowman, the Federal Reserve's vice chair of supervision.

Speaking at the IIF Annual Membership Summit in Bangkok, Bowman briefly touched on her macroeconomic outlook before delving into her approach to financial regulation.

"Inflation remains above our goal," she said Wednesday, but added that she doesn't feel a sense of urgency to act in the wake of the last rate hike.

"We have some time to wait and see how financial conditions evolve before we take more action," Bowman said.

The remarks follow recent comments by other Fed officials.

Earlier this month, Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said officials may need more time before deciding whether to raise rates again. New York Fed President John Williams has said there is "no need for urgency" after the Fed's rate increase in September, but that it may be appropriate to hike once more this year.

At the IIF event on Wednesday, Bowman also spoke about addressing what she identified as key problems with some of the regulations enacted after the financial crisis in 2008.

"I'm a pragmatist," she said. "We know we have challenges in approaches to regulation of the financial industry but we need to look forward not backward."

Some of the rules put in place following the crisis pushed a lot of activity out of the financial system, restraining growth with capital requirements and other regulations, Bowman said.

"We wanted to bring some of that back," she said.

Touching on artificial intelligence, she said there are many aspects to consider in a regulatory context as frontier models pose cybersecurity risks to critical infrastructure.

There's also the dash for capital in the construction of data centers. "We have to think about how that's being funded," and ensure there is sufficient capital, she said.

Still, it's important to let banks engage in innovation, Bowman added.

"So we're thinking about how to integrate AI into the supervision context," she said, such as looking at how banks are using it and how AI could be used for things like fraud detection.

Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 14, 2026 07:02 ET (11:02 GMT)