French HillChairman

Washington, January 22, 2025 -

House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (AR-02) today released the following statement in response to Acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill’s outline of several priorities that echo calls from Chairman French Hill’s Making Community Banking Great Again (MCBGA) principles.

“I congratulate Travis Hill on his designation as Acting Chairman of the FDIC," said Chairman Hill. "The priorities Acting Chairman Travis Hill outlined this week demonstrate that he understands how critically important it is that the FDIC focus on its mission of maintaining stability and public confidence in our nation’s financial system. I look forward to working with the FDIC to ensure that banks of all sizes can serve communities across our nation and remain a source of strength for our economy.”

Further Background:

Several of Acting FDIC Chairman Travis Hill’s priorities are parallel to House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill’s banking principles, including:

• Increase openness to innovation including providing further clarity on bank-fintech partnerships.

• Conduct a review of the cumulative impact of regulations, guidance, and manuals.

• Rescind the 2024 Statement of Policy and ensure that the bank merger review process is completed in a timely fashion, echoing calls from Chairman French Hill to prevent regulators from unfairly and indefinitely holding up mergers.

• Withdraw the poorly crafted 2024 Brokered Deposits proposal for which Chairman French Hill’s MCBGA principles directly calls.

• Improve the supervisory process including reevaluating the supervisory appeals process, such as Chairman Hill’s “Fair Audits and Inspections for Regulators’ (FAIR) Exams Act,” from the 118^th Congress.

• Encourage more de novo activity in the banking sector.

• Ensure that law-abiding customers have and maintain access to bank accounts and banking services. 

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