Good morning. President Biden issued the first veto of his presidency Monday, rejecting a Republican-led measure that would have overturned a regulation allowing retirement-plan managers to consider climate change in their investment decisions.

• What's at issue: Environmental, social and corporate governance guidelines, or ESG, have been targeted by conservatives, who have argued they are part of an effort by progressives to promote “woke capitalism.” Defenders of the regulation say ESG simply adds another factor for managers to consider when making investments.
   
• Biden's veto: “This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like,” Mr. Biden said. “Retirement plan fiduciaries should be able to consider any factor that maximizes financial returns for retirees across the country. That is not controversial—that is common sense."

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Banks, investors revive push for changes to securities accounting after SVB collapse. 

Some bank executives and investors are reviving calls for changes to U.S. accounting rules around held-to-maturity securities in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a move that was considered after the financial crisis but largely abandoned after hundreds of banking-industry objections.

If banks designate bonds as held-to-maturity securities, the firms are allowed to exclude unrealized losses on them from equity as long as they don’t sell. Banks have to carry HTM instruments at amortized cost, or an adjusted version of the original price they paid. Bonds the banks plan to sell need to be classified as available-for-sale securities and accounted for at fair market value. If banks sell any HTM securities, they must reclassify all of their HTM securities as available for sale and potentially take a big loss on the securities they didn’t sell.

Chinese antigraft watchdog lodges allegations against ex-head of chip conglomerate. 

China’s top antigraft watchdog leveled corruption allegations against the former chairman of computer-chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup Co. and referred his case to prosecutors.

China’s National Supervisory Commission on Monday accused Zhao Weiguo, 55 years old, of improperly buying goods and services from companies managed by his associates and of illegally involving family members and friends in Tsinghua Unigroup’s operations.

Correction: First Republic insiders, including its chief credit officer, sold approximately $12 million in stock on March 6. A prior version of a story cited in our March 17 newsletter said the bank's chief risk officer sold shares on that date.

SVB collapse shows smaller banks can pose risk in numbers. 

For 15 years, regulators and legislators have assumed the biggest risks to the financial system came from a handful of “too big to fail” banks.

This month’s failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank—and last week’s bank-led rescue of a third lender, First Republic Bank—suggests that focus on size may have blinded officials to the threat posed by smaller lenders, observers and former regulators say.

The recent events have called into question a law passed in 2018, which exempted many midsize lenders from the highest level of regulatory scrutiny. Some observers say the legislation marked a cultural shift that led to a lighter regulatory touch for smaller and midsize banks.

Read more:

• Jamie Dimon Leads Efforts to Craft New First Republic Bank Rescue Plan
• Credit Suisse Bond-Wipeout Threatens $250 Billion Market

• Chinese leader Xi Jinping is visiting Russia this week as part of an effort to position Beijing as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv, even as both sides gear up for spring combat operations.
   
• Amazon.com Inc. said it would cut 9,000 more corporate jobs across units that include its profitable cloud-computing and advertising businesses, a sign that the company’s cost-cutting is extending into all aspects of its operations.
   
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a jab at Donald Trump, while also criticizing the Manhattan district attorney’s office, as he weighed in Monday on the possibly imminent indictment of the former president over payoffs to a porn star.
   
• Tensions in long-running contract talks at West Coast ports are worsening, with employers accusing unionized dockworkers of slowing cargo handling at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.