The Senate will vote next week on the nomination of Jelena McWilliams to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a top bank regulatory position.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a motion to end debate on McWilliams’ nomination Thursday afternoon, signaling votes next week.
McWilliams, who previously worked as a lawyer for Fifth Third Bank and as a GOP staffer, would round out the Trump administration’s bank regulatory team. Currently, the FDIC is being led by Martin Gruenberg, an Obama appointee who’s term has expired.
McWilliams is likely to be confirmed on a bipartisan vote. She cleared the Banking Committee on a voice vote, although Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked to be recorded as a “no.”
The timing could be important. The agency, which is responsible for administering deposit insurance and taking over failed banks, is in the middle of a push, with other banking agencies, to revise the Volcker Rule, the major Dodd-Frank regulation that prohibits banks from speculating for their own profit. The Trump administration wants to revise the rule to allow banks more scope to trade on behalf of their clients without having to go through a complicated process.
