State regulator group raises concerns about FDIC nominees

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors is complaining that none of the nominees for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board has state regulatory experience on the eve of their Senate confirmation hearing. 

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to consider Wednesday the nominations of Martin Gruenberg for permanent chair of the agency, Travis Hill for vice chair and Jonathan McKernan for an open seat on the board. Gruenberg is a Democrat, and Hill and McKernan are Republicans.

CSBS has repeatedly urged Congress to abide by a 1996 amendment to the Federal Deposit Insurance Act that says at least one of the FDIC's five board members must have experience as a state banking regulator. None of President Biden's three picks, nor the two other members of the board, meet that requirement, CSBS said in a letter Tuesday to committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the panel's top Republican.

"The nominees before the Senate may otherwise be qualified for the positions to which they have been nominated," the letter said. "However, they do not possess the perspective that only an individual with state bank supervisory experience can bring to meet this fundamental statutory obligation." 

The last director with state experience, the CSBS has said, was former Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, who left in 2012. 

The FDIC nomination process has been fraught since the beginning, with the White House announcing its two Republican choices before settling on Gruenberg — the acting chair — as its choice to hold the permanent job. The move by the White House stunned observers, who noted that without a confirmed chair, Hill would be in line to become acting chairman of the agency.