Who Runs the FDIC in a New Administration?

The FDIC board of directors has been convulsed by the widely publicized dispute over who controls the agenda for FDIC board meetings -- the Board chair or a majority of its members. Currently, the FDIC Board has four members -- Chairperson Jelena McWilliams, Director (and former Chairman) Martin Gruenberg, and serving as ex-officio members, Michael Hsu (Acting Comptroller of the Currency) and Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; there is one vacancy, that of Vice Chairman.

Director Gruenberg and the two ex-officio directors, both Biden appointees, moved to take control of the board agenda, specifically with regard to bank merger policies, which led McWilliams, a Trump appointee, to resign as chairman, effective February 4. Gruenberg may likely become the acting chairman of what will be, for the time being, a three-member board.

The dispute between McWilliams and the other three directors has raised several issues not just for the FDIC but for other agencies governed by boards, such as the Federal Reserve, the SEC, the NCUA, the CFTC. The FDIC is unique, though, with two directors serving at the pleasure of the President, and who head their own agencies without colleagues who have a vote on their actions.

The webinar panelists will discuss the implications of the turmoil at the FDIC and what it may mean for not just the FDIC but also for the boards of other independent regulatory agencies.

Featuring:

--Thomas Vartanian, Executive Director, The Financial Tech and Cybersecurity Center
--Michael Krimminger, Senior Counsel, Cleary Gotlieb
-- Bert Ely, Principal, Ely & Company, Inc.
-- Moderator: Brian Johnson, Partner, Alston & Bird