While no banking regulators are slated to testify in Tuesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing on federal banking agency regulation, those agencies, along with the federal regulator of credit unions, will each have witnesses before the panel on May 15.
Titled “Oversight of Financial Regulators,” the May 15 hearing, set for 9:30 a.m. ET, will be the first congressional hearing for Rodney Hood in his official capacity as chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board. In addition to Hood, the May 15 hearing will include as witnesses Joseph Otting, comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Randal Quarles, vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve Board, and Jelena McWilliams, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Board.
The last time all four regulators were before Senate Banking was the Oct. 2 hearing on implementation of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA, S. 2155). Key topics covered then included the Fed’s focus on tailoring rules to institutions’ risk profiles; OCC’s push for modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA); work at the FDIC to update rules on brokered deposits; and NCUA’s push, delivered by then-Chairman J. Mark McWatters, for third-party vendor exam authority and greater authority for credit unions to serve underserved areas.
In related news, the House Financial Services Committee has scheduled its own oversight hearing for May 16 titled “Oversight of Prudential Regulators: Ensuring the Safety, Soundness and Accountability of Megabanks and Other Depository Institutions.” The committee says the hearing is set for 10 a.m. but has yet to publish a witness list.
The Banking Committee’s April 30 hearing, “Guidance, Supervisory Expectations, and the Rule of Law: How do the Banking Agencies Regulate and Supervise Institutions,” is set for 10 a.m. and will include as witnesses Greg Baer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bank Policy Institute; Margaret Tahyar, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP; and Patricia McCoy, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School.
RR: Hearing will look at how federal banking agencies do their work – without any regulators providing input (April 24, 2019)
RR: Regulators lay out future needs, plans in testimony before Senate Banking panel (Oct. 2, 2018)