Trump Nominees to Key Financial Regulatory Posts Met with Mixed Reactions

Earlier this week, the Senate confirmed Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Powell easily managed the confirmation process and his moderate stance on many monetary issues made him a palatable bipartisan choice and successor to Janet Yellen.

That same day, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing for another Trump appointee, Jelena McWilliams, slated to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). McWilliams’s hearing did not go quite as smoothly as Powell’s landslide confirmation.

She was asked about the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s proposal to issue special purpose bank charters to FinTech companies, an issue dodged by her predecessor at FDIC. She expressed no concerns that the FinTech charters would harm the safety and soundness of banks.

One major point of contention occurred when McWilliams was questioned about the causes of the mortgage crisis of 2008. A 2011 FDIC study had pegged part of the crisis on banks leveraging too much at the time. McWilliams declined to answer and promised to review the report and give a more definitive response at a later date.

As the leader of the FDIC, McWilliams would potentially oversee an insurance program protecting millions of bank account holders. The FDIC played an important role previously in Operation Choke Point.