Americas Reg Desk
Wednesday, 2026-08-19 · covering the last 24h
United States
Fed — FOMC minutes show a 9–3 vote, the most divided in roughly a decade. Minutes of the 28–29 July meeting, released today, confirm the Committee held the federal funds target range at 3.50%–3.75%, with regional presidents Beth Hammack (Cleveland), Neel Kashkari (Minneapolis) and Lorie Logan (Dallas) dissenting in favor of a 25bp hike. The minutes record that the dissenters "preferred to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by ¼ percentage point at this meeting," judging it would "likely help forestall the need for a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening moves at a later stage"; broader participant discussion noted "policy tightening would likely be necessary if inflation did not decline." On the balance sheet, "most participants commented on balance sheet policy, noting that the findings of the task force on balance sheet policy would be a useful input into Committee deliberations," with detailed QT/composition decisions deferred to a future meeting. Minutes also record a discussion, raised by Chair Kevin Warsh, of cutting the number of annual FOMC meetings from eight to six plus two non-rate-setting sessions, not before 2027. FOMC minutes
No new SEC rule actions, SRO filings from NYSE/Nasdaq/Cboe, or FINRA notices of structural weight in the last 24 hours. The Rule 611/610(e) trade-through rescission comment file (S7-2026-20) remains closed as of 17 August with no Commission action yet. No update on the IEX fee-schedule restructuring or Nasdaq's 23-hour Global Trading Hours rollout (still 6 December 2026); no CFTC items of equity relevance.
Canada
No material new items from CSA, OSC, CIRO or TMX in the last 24 hours. The Bank of Canada's next scheduled announcement remains 2 September.
Latin America
No material new market-structure or central-bank items in the last 24 hours from B3/CVM, BMV/BIVA/CNBV, CMF/CNV, the BCB/Copom, Banxico, the BCCh or the BCRA.
Informational only — summaries of public regulatory and central bank sources; not advice.