FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams underscored principles of certainty, consistency, diligence and communication in regulatory supervision.
In remarks at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association's Banking Law Committee, Ms. McWilliams emphasized that the FDIC's rules must be clear to those it supervises. She explained that a key component of effective supervision is providing certainty and clarity to regulated institutions and to the regulator's own supervisory staff on how to "operate in a safe and sound manner, be fair to consumers, and comply with applicable laws and regulations." Ms. McWilliams distinguished between supervisory guidance and rules, saying that guidance "should not be treated as [rules]." She also said that a crucial aspect of certainty is transparency, citing FDIC efforts to make publicly available FDIC information that was previously unpublished.
Ms. McWilliams said that the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and FDIC, along with state regulators, work through the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council to "prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms."
Ms. McWilliams listed a set of upcoming issues on the FDIC agenda including: improving the de novo application process, revisiting brokered deposit regulations, simplifying regulatory capital requirements and improving the resolution process for large institutions, among other things.
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