Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asserted Tuesday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has worked to weaken the nation's banking system, and vowed that she will oppose his upcoming re-nomination.

In remarks made before the Senate banking committee during a hearing, Warren cited several instances where the central bank under Powell has weakened post-financial crisis banking regulations. These examples include weakening stress tests, eliminating Volcker Rule restrictions, and easing liquidity requirements.

Warren said that Powell has weakened stress tests--which were designed to demonstrate whether big banks could survive without a taxpayer bailout--by providing significantly more information about the models used in the tests to the largest bank, essentially giving them all the information they needed to pass.

The Fed under Powell also eliminated the ability of bank supervisors to object to a bank's planned capital distributions on qualitative grounds if there were deficiencies in the models and the assumptions banks used to estimate losses, according to Warren.

Powell also weakened the U.S. banking system by easing Volcker Rule--which separates commercial banking from Wall Street risk-taking--restrictions by letting banks invest more of their assets in high-risk private equity and hedge funds, Warren said. This led to the recent collapse of Archegos Capital Management, causing banks to suffer $10 billion in losses.

Moveover, Powell's Fed eased the Liquidity Coverage Ratio--which requires banks to hold sufficient high-quality liquid assets to meet their obligations--resulting in increased risks to bank's financial stability and the overall nation's financial system, Warren said.

"Your record causes me grave concern: over and over you have acted to make our banking system less safe," Warren said to Powell. "That makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed, and that's why I'll oppose your re-nomination."

Powell has served as leader of the central bank since 2018, and his term expires in February. Wall Street broadly expects President Joe Biden to re-nominate Powell for a second term, but Warren and other more progressive senators are expected to oppose.

Warren argued that the Fed's recent deregulatory moves in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic could lead to another financial crisis, similar to what happened in 2008.

She said that Powell was "lucky" that banks have mostly been able to avoid major issues amid the central bank's period of deregulation. However, Warren said the Archegos Capital Management crisis and the industry's need for stimulus during the pandemic are dangers to a deregulated banking environment.

"Re-nominating you means gambling that for the next five years, a Republican majority at the Federal Reserve with a Republican chai, who has regularly voted to deregulate Wall Street, won't drive this economy over a financial cliff," Warren continued.

"The 2008 crash shows what happens when the luck runs out. The seeds of the 2008 crash were planted years in advance by major regulators like the Federal Reserve, that refuse to rein in big banks," Warren added. "I came to Washington after the 2008 crash to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen again."