The Senate on Thursday confirmed Jelena McWilliams as the 21st chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, rounding out President Trump’s ream of bank regulators.
McWilliams, a former top lawyer for Fifth Third Bank who previously served as a GOP congressional staffer, will be responsible for regulating banks that get deposit insurance, and for helping to implement Trump’s regulatory relief program.
She will replace Martin Gruenberg, an Obama appointee who has served on after his term expired in November.
McWilliams won’t have much time to settle in at the agency. She will immediately be involved in a major multiagency effort to rewrite the Volcker rule, one of the most important and complex post-crisis regulations that is meant to prohibit speculative trading by banks. The Federal Reserve is set to vote on a proposal to revamp the rule next week.
Unlike some other of Trump’s nominees for banking positions, McWilliams’ confirmation process wasn’t particularly contentious. During confirmation hearings, she demonstrated a strong command of banking laws and emphasized her commitment to protecting the bank system by citing a bank collapse that ruined her parents’ finances.
That bank failure took place in the former Yugoslavia, where McWilliams was born. She arrived in the U.S. at age 18 alone, with just $500.
With McWilliams’ confirmation, Trump regulators are in place at the agencies that directly oversee and supervise banks. He does have one nomination yet to make, though: A permanent director of the Consumer FInancial Protection Bureau. That position has been filled on an acting basis by Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, but a nominee will be needed in June.
