Giving her first public remarks since becoming FDIC chairman two weeks before, Jelena McWilliams today previewed several elements of her agenda at an industry conference in Washington, D.C. She emphasized that she will give a “fresh eye” to FDIC regulations as part of other regulators’ efforts to revisit post-Dodd-Frank financial rules.
“I have asked staff already to take a look at the existing rules and to make me a list of all the guidelines that we have issued for comment and not for comment, as well as the rulemakings,” she said. “To the extent that guidances were never open for public comment, those will probably rise to the top of my list.”
She added that she will seek to ensure the prudential regulators apply CAMELS ratings consistently, accelerate the process of making decisions on deposit insurance applications by de novo banks and address industry concerns to the extent she can on banking cannabis-related businesses. “It’s not our job as an agency to set our federal policy” on marijuana, she explained, “but it is our job to help our regulated entities learn how to comply in a way that makes sense.”
