In prepared remarks at the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) first public session of the year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set out a new direction that treats economic growth and economic security as key pillars of financial stability and signalled a reassessment of how the Council addresses systemic risk, including its approach to nonbank designations. The speech framed economic stagnation as a financial stability risk that can weaken debt-servicing capacity, pressure asset values and increase risk premiums. Over the coming year, FSOC will consider ways to enhance member agencies’ supervisory and regulatory frameworks and other efforts to position banks and other regulated entities to foster innovation and support growth, while its economic security work will focus on the resilience of critical markets, including the Treasury, fixed-income and equity markets, and critical market infrastructure. FSOC will develop an interpretation of financial stability incorporating growth and security, revisit the guidance and analytic framework adopted in 2023 to align with this direction, and commit to greater procedural rigor in the use of its nonbank designation authority, alongside greater reliance on recommendations to member agencies as a more tailored tool where needed.