Acting Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg Announces FDIC Priorities for 2022

  • Source: fdic.gov

Treliant Takeaway:

Treliant’s team of regulatory compliance experts stand at the ready to address any and all of the FDIC’s priorities for your institution in 2022.

Article Highlights:

Under returning chairman Martin Gruenberg, the FDIC will pursue five priorities that together indicate a renewed commitment to industry vigilance and enforcement as part of the Biden Administration’s Democratic agenda. Though many of these priorities will be lengthy in realization, prudent Banks will take steps to evaluate and revise their corresponding practices with an eye towards increased safety and soundness. 

This past New Year’s Eve, Trump Administration holdout Jelena McWilliams resigned from the FDIC. Her successor, Martin Gruenberg, returns to the (acting) chairmanship as the longest-serving director in the FDIC’s history.  He recently announced the FDIC’s top five priorities for 2022:

  • Revise the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA): In light of the OCC’s recension of June 2020 CRA rule, issuing a “major” revision to the CRA’s implementing rule is 2022’s top priority for Gruenberg.
  • Join the Supervisors for Greening the Financial System: Under McWilliams, the FDIC was a lone holdout on addressing climate risk in the industry. With Gruenberg’s instatement as acting chairman, climate risk is now one of the highest-ranking priorities at the FDIC. The agency will seek public comment on how banks can “prudently manage these risks.”
  • Review the Bank Merger Procedures: Gruenberg notes that The Bank Merger Act has not been “comprehensively reviewed” in 25 years. As such, the review is a priority for the safety and soundness of our financial system.
  • Analyze Crypto Risk: With the increasing advent of crypto-assets in the financial mainstream, the FDIC will evaluate the risks posed by these products in an effort to catalog the manners in which banks can safely engage in the growing market.
  • Finalize Basel III Capital Rule: Now that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has reached final consensus on modifications to the Basel III framework, the implementation of these changes is a priority for the U.S.’s regulatory agencies in 2022.

Together, these regulatory priorities signal an uptick in the FDIC’s vigilance and enforcement under the Democratic Biden Administration.