Rep. French Hill Chosen to Chair House Financial Services Committee

Representative French Hill (R-Ark.) has been selected by the Republican Steering Committee to serve as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC), with the impending retirement of the committee’s current chair Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) at the end of this term. Prior to his selection to the House, Hill was the founder, Chair, and CEO of Delta Trust & Banking Corporation.

According to Banking Dive, Hill remarked that he looks forward to collaborating with House Republican leaders “in tandem with President Trump and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to bring common-sense economic policies that will produce a new era of American prosperity shared by all our citizens across our land.”

Hill currently serves as the HFSC’s Vice Chair and is the Chair of the Committee’s recently-created Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion subcommittee. He has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance, and the Executive Secretary to the President’s Economic Policy Council.

As noted by Reuters, the HFSC is a powerful congressional panel that oversees the financial markets and writes legislation for banks. This will likely also include cryptocurrency, which is expected to be a top priority for Republicans under President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

The HFSC also plays a role monitoring federal agencies and regulators, like the Federal Reserve, the Department of the Treasury, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hill has voiced his desire to reshape financial policies, focusing on tailoring regulations to fit small community banks, as well as reducing redundancies. Additionally, he recommended welcoming innovation related to banks’ third-party relationships and access to capital. 

“Let’s make community banking and commercial banking competitive again by removing some of the calcification in the regulatory system that’s made it so hard to be profitable, serve customers and be safe and sound,” he said.