Office of the Comptroller of the Currency outlines Comptroller Gould’s priorities as Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board member

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published a statement from Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould at a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) board meeting setting out his areas of focus as an FDIC board member. The priorities span resolution capabilities, Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) management, FDIC culture and accountability, deposit insurance application processing, state bank preemption, bank funding analytics, and supervisory tailoring for community banks. On resolution, Gould drew a distinction between “execution” and “planning”, expressed skepticism about the efficacy of resolution planning and, in some cases, the legality of related requirements and expectations, while calling for rebuilding the FDIC’s operational capacity to execute orderly resolutions and for greater transparency on the FDIC’s actions during the 2023 bank failures. For the DIF, he said premium-setting and related ratings methodologies, including for special assessments, have lacked clarity and at times contributed to litigation or “gaming”, and argued for clearer and fairer approaches that limit market distortions. He also backed ongoing cultural reforms under Acting Chairman Hill, advocated a more circumscribed and time-bound FDIC review of deposit insurance applications to reduce impediments to de novo bank formation, encouraged additional steps to support state bank preemption rights under the Riegle-Neal Act amendments and Section 27 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, urged modernization of deposit and funding categories used for liquidity-risk analysis and assessments, and supported efforts to provide more tailored regulation and supervision for community banks.